Embryo Protection

Federal court halts Obama administration’s embryonic stem cell policy
WASHINGTON, August 23,2010 — A federal court Monday issued an order that prevents the Obama administration from carrying out its embryonic stem cell research policy while a lawsuit against it proceeds in court. The court concluded that the policy, which allows such research, is likely to be in violation of a federal law known as the “Dickey/Wicker Amendment” that prohibits federal funds from being used on research that involves the destruction of human embryos.

FDA Gives Green Light to First Embryonic Stem Cell Trials in Humans
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 3, 2010  – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is giving the green light for California researchers to test the effectiveness of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) on human patients, according to the New York Times.

"Eggsploitation" Reveals the Infertility Industry’s Dirty Little Secret
Hidden Dangers, Health Risks, and Exploitation of Young Women
NEW YORK, NY, July 28, 2010 – The infertility industry has a dirty little secret that is dressed in deceptive advertising, large monetary incentives and appeals to altruism. Using these tactics, the industry targets young, vulnerable women for a precious commodity: human eggs. Eggsploitation, a new documentary released today by The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, is a tragic spotlight on the booming and risky business of selling eggs, and reveals the health risks and exploitation of women through egg donation.

General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
BOSTON, Mass, July 1, 2009 -- General Electric has announced that it will use embryonic stem cells provided by Geron Corporation for the purpose of testing toxic effects of drug treatments.

Risk of Stillbirth 4 Times Higher After IVF
AARHUS, Denmark, February 22, 2010 -- Women who become pregnant with a single fetus after in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) have an increased risk of a stillbirth, according to new research out today.

Calif. Quietly Shifts Away from Embryo Research
Investors Knock Waste on Useless Research
LOS ANGELES, CA, January 29, 2010 - California's Institute for Regenerative Medicine came into being five years ago, fueled by a conviction that the Bush administration's restriction on embryo-destructive research in the National Institutes of Health was stifling the progress of science. But after years of fruitless work, the Institute has now quietly diverted funds from embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) to adult stem cell research - which has already produced dozens of treatments and all-out cures for maladies ranging from spinal cord injury, to Alzheimer's, to type I diabetes.

California Prop 71 Bait and Switch
A Jobs Program for Scientist
Wednesday, January 13, 2010 -- Investor’s Business Daily opines that Proposition 71 has been a failure [at finding promised cures]. [But] sad fact is that Proposition 71 was a smashing success that splendidly served the broader purpose for which it was brought forth. Using outrageous hype–little children getting out of their wheelchairs, etc.–its designers saw it both as a political  hammer with which to concuss President Bush (only bruising him) and, more importantly, as a way by which to grab a permanent seat at the table of power for the Science Establishment.

New US Bishops Bioethical Statements
Reproductive Technologies and Nutrition and Hydration
BALTIMORE, MD, November 17, 2009 - In addition to the Pastoral Letter on marriage, the Bishops approved an important document on reproductive technologies, “Life-Giving Love in an Age of Technology,” which addresses Catholic teaching on a range of infertility treatments including in vitro fertilization, embryo adoption, sperm and egg donation and surrogacy and offered recommendations for approved therapeutic means that help a couple conceive. The Catholic Key Blog reported that like the recent Vatican document Dignitas Personae, it raised serious moral concerns about "embryo adoption" without definitively ruling it out as a legitimate option for couples.

Read Along with President Obama
When President Obama met with Pope Benedict XVI on July 10, 2009, the Holy Father gave him an "unannouced gift," a copy of Dignitas Personae, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's instruction on bioethics that was released last September 8, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The President said he would read it on the plane to his next stop in Africa. Taking him at his word, take a look at what he read: Dignitas Personae

New Evidence Embryo Destruction Research Unneeded
SAN FRANCSICO, March 13, 2009 -- Ethicist and Discovery Institute Wesley Smith reported that Geron, the first Company to get FDA permission to test a treatment derived from embryo destruction for spinal cord injury, found that their patients were improving from treatment using adult stem cells before they were able to do their risky experiment. Cells derived from embryos have been know to cause tumors. Adult stem cell are safe and have been used in the treatment of almost eighty diseases.

Obama Pushes Killing Kind of Stem Cell Research
With Taxpayer Funds
SAN FRANCISCO, March 9, 2009 (updated March 12)-- Today President Barack Obama is rescinded President Bush's executive order that prohibited the use of taxpayer funding of research on new stem cell lines created by the destruction of living human embryos. In addition, with little notice or media attention, he rescinded another executive order requiring funding of research seeking ethical alternatives to producing embryo-like (pluripotent) stem cells.

Obama Determined to Fund Embryonic Stem-Cell Research
WASHINGTON, August 14, 2008-- Sen. Obama's campaign communicated that expanding federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research would be one of his first moves as president, as reported by David Brooks of the "New York Times".

Revolutionary Breakthrough in Stem Cell Research
Embryonic-Like Stem Cells Obtained from Skin Cells without Destroying Life
MADISON, Wisconsin/ KYOTO, Japan, November 28, 2007-- A new study released last week by two teams of scientists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Kyoto University in Japan revealed the possibility of reprogramming regular human skin cells to obtain embryonic-like stem cells. This historic discovery means that the kind of stem cell research that requires the killing of a human being in his or her embryonic stage of life is no longer needed.

Here Come the Manimals
SAN FRANCISCO, June 29, 2007-- Get ready for the "manimals." In Sunday's Washington Post, Will Saletan describes how some scientists have cut themselves loose from the tether of self restraint and are busily planning the creation of human/animal chimeras with increasingly human attributes.