Search

Reports that France banned human cloning but Parliament suspended a ban on stem-cell research on human embryos for five years to assess the merit of research that could lead to treatments for Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and heart disease. Law makes human cloning punishable by 30 years in prison and a fine of more than nine million dollars.

The article reports that the idea about a synthetic genome was discussed at a close-door meeting at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts on May 10, 2016. Topics discussed include the potential use of the synthetic genome to create human beings without biological parents, the concern over the life sciences community, and the Human Genome Project 2 (HGP2): The Human Genome Synthesis Project.

The article presents a profile of embryonic stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan. Yamanaka led one of the two groups of researchers who announced in 2007 they had found the means to convert human skin cells into the equivalent of embryonic stem cells with using an actual embryo. Yamanaka is hailed in his country as a symbol of its progress in basic scientific research.

The article reports that two separate teams of genetic researchers, Shinya Yamanaka and James A. Thomson, stated they had succeeded in turning human skin cells into what appeared to be embryonic stem cells without creating or destroying an embryo. The scientists added four genes to each cell, which reprogrammed them into cells able to transform into any of the 220 human cell types. The procedure could make moot the political debate over the use of embryonic stem cells in medical research.

The article reports that South Korean researcher, Dr. Hwang Woo Suk, who claimed to have cloned human cells, fabricated evidence for all of his research, according to a Seoul National University panel investigation Hwang. The finding removes any possibility of legitimate achievement in human cell cloning from Hwang, who had risen to international celebrity. Hwang's professional demise is a great embarrassment for Korea's government, which invested in his laboratory and made him a national hero.

The article focuses on South Korean veterinary researcher Dr. Hwang Woo Suk, whose reports of advances in cloning were declared to have been fabricated. His disgrace has left scientists wondering how he rose so fast and deceived so many. The South Korean government, which promoted Hwang as a celebrity, has seen its investment wasted. Top scientific journals are re-examining their acceptance procedures. Hwang falsified data for patient-derived embryonic stem cell colonies he reported in "Science." The main premise of his article was untrue. A panel is reviewing his claim to be the first to clone human cells. INSET: Questionable Photographs.

Focuses on Dr. Hwang Woo Suk, the South Korean research scientist whose studies on cloning and stem cells have propelled him to international stardom. He has resigned from Seoul National University after an investigative panel found that he had fabricated the paper in which he claimed to have created stem cell colonies from 11 patients. The Korean government plans to halt research funds for the 53-year-old-scientist. Advocates of stem cell research in both Korea and the U.S. are concerned that the setback could damage the image of what was already a controversial field.

Comments on science and technology in popular culture. Stance of the U.S. President George W. Bush administration on embryonic stem cell research; Examples of unsuccessful opposition to medical breakthroughs that are now almost universally recognized as beneficial, such as vaccination, dissection and organ transplantation; Religious objections to blood transfusions, animal implants and in-vitro fertilization; Reference to bad ideas, including eugenics, the Tuskegee syphilis experiments and the vivisection of animals; Debate over therapeutic cloning; History of protests to medical research in America; Possibility that the march of science toward therapeutic cloning may be stopped by its own deficiencies; Views of medical experts.

Offers a look at the views of U.S. President George W. Bush on embryonic stem cell research. Comments of Bush, in which he expressed his plans to veto a bill that would provide federal funding to stem cell research projects; Views of Bush on the use of cloning to replicate embryos for use in stem cell research; Details of the proposed bill, which would provide funding for research on embryos left over from fertility treatments; Comments of several legislators who support the bill on its potential benefits; Details of the historical context of legislation on stem cell research during Bush's administration.

Focuses on the dead bodies that are frozen in steel tanks filled with liquid nitrogen at Alcor Life Extension Foundation in the U.S. Aim of the nonprofit company to rescue its patients from natural post-mortem deterioration until a distant time when cellular regeneration, nanotechnology, cloning or some other science can restart their lives; Inclusion of baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams in the patients who are frozen by Alcor; Cost of the service offered by the company.

Examines how the film "Godsend," starring Robert De Niro, Greg Kinnear and Rebecca Romijin-Stamos and directed by Nick Hamm, depicts cloning. De Niro's playing of the role of a medical director who convinces a couple to have their dead son cloned; Physical and ethical dangers of cloning.

Focuses on the support of the National Academy of Science to human cloning in Washington D.C. Opposition of President George W. Bush on reproductive cloning; Impact of the September 11 terrorist attack on stem cell research; Effort of bioethicist Mark Siegler to ban cloning.

An excerpt from an interview with actor Ari Millen is presented who discusses his four character roles on the television program "Orphan Black," the clone in the television program he has similarity, and the impact of a child on his acting.

In an academic-corporate partnership that may represent the future of stem cell research, Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago has teamed up with a biotech company to begin the first human trials of a therapy derived from embryonic stem cells. By using private money, scientists said, the experiment avoids the political battles over federally financed research that involves the embryonic cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Menlo Park, Calif., company has begun testing an embryonic stem cell treatment in a patient with spinal cord injuries, the first time such a medical therapy has been used on a human in a government-approved study. The company, the Geron Corporation, which won federal approval for the trial in July, said it would look at the safety of the treatment and how well the patient can tolerate it. (The company does not receive federal financing, so this trial falls outside the lawsuit challenging the use of human embryonic stem cells in scientific research.) The patient, whose name was not disclosed, is enrolled at the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation center in Atlanta; the company has said it plans to enroll 8 to 10 patients in the study at sites around the country. Even if all goes well in the early-stage study, the treatment faces many years of testing for effectiveness before it could be approved as a therapy for spinal injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last six weeks, the Obama administration's policy for financing embryonic stem cell research has been challenged, blocked and temporarily reinstated. Here is how the legal roller coaster has affected one laboratory: SEPT. 1, 2009 Jason Spence, above, a junior scientist, wins a coveted federal research grant for $101,000 to turn embryonic stem cells into pancreatic and liver tissue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world's first authorized test in people of a therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration. The clinical trial could offer the first glimpse of the safety and possible effectiveness of a technology that has been hailed for its vast medical promise but also embroiled in political and ethical controversy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The University of Nebraska Board of Regents cast a tie vote on human embryonic stem cell research on Friday, defeating a rare effort to limit such research at a university system beyond what state and federal laws allow. The 4-to-4 vote, which took place in Lincoln, in essence leaves the university's policy in line with President Obama's expansion of the research that federal money may cover. It was a major disappointment for groups that have led a sustained campaign against the research and saw the Nebraska fight as a possible new front in the national debate over the matter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In an unusual pushback against President Obama's expansion of federal financing of human embryonic stem cell research, the University of Nebraska is considering restricting its stem cell experiments to cell lines approved by President George W. Bush. The university's board of regents is scheduled to take up the matter on Friday, and if it approves the restrictions -- some opponents of the research say they have the votes, though others remain doubtful -- the University of Nebraska will become the first such state institution in the country to impose limits on stem cell research that go beyond what state and federal laws allow, university officials say. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

You'd think the family values branch of the Republican Party would have this down pat: Americans disapprove of adultery. They disapprove of it so much that they rank philandering as less morally acceptable than the death penalty, cloning humans or suicide. A Gallup poll of 1,015 adults nationwide -- conducted in May just before we were treated to the saucier details of the lives of South Carolina's Republican governor and Nevada's Republican senator -- found that 92 percent of Americans think it is morally wrong for a married man or woman to have a fling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports that 300 bishops around the U.S. will meet in Baltimore, Maryland, to discuss a set of Catholics' political responsibilities. The bishops' official booklet "Faithful Citizenship," met competition from conservative voter guides insisting on the church's position on five nonnegotiable issues. The issues include abortion, euthanasia, embryonic-stem-cell-research, human cloning and same sex marriage.

The article reports on the accusation of research misbehavior to Gerald P. Schatten, a biologist who was involved with Hwang Woo Suk and his discredited claim to have cloned human cells.

The article reports on the ordeal of the periodical "Science," after it published a study from South Korea on cloning of human embryos.

The article reports on a controversy related to cloning of human embryos and extracting their stem cells.

The article focuses on ethical issues concerning human cloning in South Korea.

Reports on the issue raised against the devised technique for deriving embryonic stem cells developed by scientist in Massachusetts.

Reports on the controversy over the use of somatic cell nuclear transfer for human embryo cloning.

Focuses on the first human embryos that were genetic matches for diseased or injured patients produced by the South Korean scientists.

Report on the decision of the U.S. to abandon its attempts to obtain a United Nations treaty banning all human cloning. Concession to an agreement to create a nonbinding declaration against cloning to reproduce humans; Citation of the policy of U.S. President George W. Bush against stem cell research; Debate over the application of therapeutic cloning in finding treatments for cancer and other diseases.

Comments on the efforts of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to influence the decision of the United Nations on the issue of human cloning.

Assesses the effort of the United Nations effort to ban the reproductive cloning of human beings. Argument whether the prohibition should be extended to cover stem cell and other research known as therapeutic cloning; Agreement of members of the United Nations to prohibit cloning of human beings; Resolution offered by Costa Rica to outlaw all forms of human cloning.

Features the theater production "A Number," directed by Caryl Churchill and starring Peter Sarsgaard, showing at the New York Theater Workshop. Focus on the controversial issue of human cloning.

Comments on the issue of human cloning. Reasons why the author is not supportive of the idea of using human cloning to find cure for diseases such as Parkinson's, the disease suffered from by the author; Moral and ethical aspects of human cloning.

Delves into human cloning. Ability to clone human embryos in Seoul, South Korea; Study of the human embryonic stem cells in the U.S.; Proposal of a four-year moratorium on therapeutic cloning, or the production of cloned human embryos to generate cells to repair a patient's diseased tissues.

Discusses the realities in the advances in cloning. Development of cloned human embryonic stem cells; Immediate goal of the genetic basis of diseases; Complexities of therapeutic cloning.

Reports on the possibility that cloned embryos may not be genetically equivalent to normal ones. Implications for the future of human therapeutic cloning in the United States; Aspects of cloning, including the laws governing it, the ethical costs of doing it, and the medicines it might eventually bestow; Evidence of cloned mice that are riddled with genetic abnormalities; Suggestion that cloned embryos have little potential to develop into a normal human beings; Distinction between cloned embryos and the kind of blastocysts formed during normal reproduction, including embryos fertilized in vitro.

Offers a conversation with Dr. Woo Suk Hwang and Dr. Shin Yong Moon, who have successfully cloned a human embryo and extracted a stem cell line from it. Goal of finding the causes of incurable diseases and offering a new window for cures; Implications for the Christian beliefs of Dr. Moon and half of the research team; Desire of the scientists for a ban on reproductive cloning; Significance of the procedure used by Drs. Hwang and Moon for extracting nuclear material from the ovum; Impact of Korean culture on the scientists' ability to concentrate for long periods of time.

Comments on the success of several South Korean scientists to clone human embryos. Call for international ban on cloning for human reproduction; Concern over the restricting of financing systems for stem cell research; Potential of the technique in therapeutics.

Focuses on the scientific impact of the achievements made by scientists Woo Suk Hwang and Shin Yong Moon in creating human embryos through cloning and extracting embryonic stem cells in South Korea. Information on the expertise of the scientists; Increase of debate over moral and ethical aspects of cloning; Emphasis on the aim of finding treatment for diseases.

Focuses on the debate over the cloning of human cells in the U.S. Impact of the report of developing human embryos by South Korean researchers; Citation of the lack of federal law against cloning; Distinction between reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning.

Reports on the intensity of the political and religious debate over human cloning in the U.S. Intention of the bill to ban both reproductive cloning; Election of House of Representatives to outlaw all human-cloning experiments; Lack of federal law on cloning.

Reports on the claim by scientists in South Korea to have created a human embryo through cloning and extracted embryonic stem cells. Importance of stem cells for medical research; Goals of the scientists; Feasibility of the birth of a cloned baby; Planned publication of the research; Comments from Dr. Robert Lanza, whose company has been making similar efforts at cloning; Reactions of other scientists.

Comments on the campaign of the United States at the United Nations General Assembly in support of a total ban on human cloning whether for reproductive or medical purposes.

Reports that doctors in China have become the first to make an infertile woman pregnant with an experimental technique devised in the U.S. Background on nuclear transfer, which involves moving the nucleus from a fertilized egg into another egg with its nucleus removed; Work of researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou; Why the process was banned in China; Criticism of the technique; Debate over whether the technique is close to human cloning; How nuclear transfer differs from cloning; Comments of Dr. James Grifo, who developed the procedure at New York University, and Dr. Zhuang Guanglun, one of the researchers. INSET: A Technique Related to Cloning, with Key Differences.

Editorial. Comments on a bill in the U.S. to ban all forms of human cloning.

Focuses on the results of a U.S. House of Representatives vote on a bill regarding the prohibition of human cloning.

Stresses that the U.S. Congress must enact a ban on human cloning because opposition to cloning to produce children is unanimous in the U.S.

Reports on the decision of journalist Dr. Michael A. Guillen to suspend his participation to oversee tests to determine whether Clonaid had actually cloned a 12-day-old baby because of suspicion that the cloning was an elaborate hoax.

Focuses on the controversy over making a distinction between reproductive and therapeutic cloning in the U.S.