Embryos and cloning on Senate agenda this week

Opponents argue that the research is unethical, because deriving the stem cells destroys the blastocyst, an unimplanted human embryo at the sixth to eighth day of development.

Michael Sandel, Ph.D. )philosopher)in the April 4, 2007 Boston Globe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Stem cells will be at the top of the agenda for the U.S. Senate when it returns on Tuesday with supporters of the research hoping they can change the president's mind on the issue and opponents hoping to have a say about their stand.

. . ."We got a super-majority under the Republican-controlled 109th Congress," said Sean Tipton of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, which lobbies in support of embryonic stem-cell research.

Tipton said the current Democratic-controlled Senate will be even friendlier. "When the Senate passes this bill, the president is going to be under incredible pressure to acknowledge that the science has changed and to acknowledge that the American people support this research," he said in a telephone interview.

Washington Post April 8, 2004

"The bill is a Trojan Horse. It contains language directing the Secretary of HHS "to conduct and support basic and applied research having pluripotent potential" so long as "That the isolation, derivation, production, or testing of such cells will not involve-(1) the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes"

SCNT involves just such technique. The clear implication is that under this language SCNT is "unethical." Passage of this bill would make the day for NIH funding of SCNT difficult or impossible."

Bernie Seigel, lawyer (the one who sued the Raelians for custody of their children) on Stem Cell Information blog


We will hear much about how "science has changed" since people really really want cloning and stem cell research this week.

We'll hear that it's all morals and wrong-headed religion.

We'll hear that we're killing people by opposing SCNT and embryonic stem cell research.

We probably won't hear a lot about the heart repair news, the man who's Parkinson's is improving after a trip to Asia, or all the people who receive bone marrow and umbilical cord blood cells this week.

We probably won't hear much about Dr. Atala's cells from the placenta. Or the embryonic-like stem cells from umbilical cord.



Call your Senators every day this week!