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BIG BIOTECH MEETS THE VATICAN: A FRUITFUL UNION? PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, D.Phil, Senior Fellow in Ethics   

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In May the Vatican announced that it was beginning a cooperative venture in adult stem cell (ASC) research with the international biotech firm NeoStem.  Although the Catholic Church has patronized the sciences for centuries, this is the first contractual foray into stem cell research with a for-profit secular corporation.  NeoStem (listed on the Amex) has pharmaceutical operations in the US and China.  The company is launching a development program in adult stem cell therapies in addition to building adult stem cell collection banks in the U.S. and China to allow people to harvest and store their own stem cells as a type of clinical insurance toward future medical need.  Its Chinese division, its website says, was established in order “to leverage the country’s progressive stem cell environment” (www.neostem.com).  NeoStem’s operations with the Vatican—specifically with the Pontifical Council for Culture (PCC)—will run through the corporation’s non-profit foundation “Stem for Life.”  The firm will bring to the relationship its considerable expertise in clinical ASC research; the PCC—extraordinarily—is bringing one million dollars and the “reach” of the Church’s influence.  The New York Daily News reported on May 25 that the money will come from two foundations, but the Vatican has not revealed their names [1].

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07/14/2010
 
Just Cause and Natural Family Planning 2 PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, D.Phil., Senior Fellow in Ethics   
christian.jpgWASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 30, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here are two questions on bioethics asked by ZENIT readers and answered by the fellows of the Culture of Life Foundation.

Q: Thank you for responding to the question regarding when natural family planning (NFP) is appropriate to use. [...] I can understand why the Church has never formally identified "just causes," but nevertheless, in our world today, I believe we thrive on tangible examples and responses to help us make good decisions rather than simply on abstract concepts.  In your article, you suggested that you could further provide specific examples of what is meant by "just causes" to postpone children. While I know that no list will be complete and it really depends on each couple's situation, [...] I would appreciate the further explanation. Sincerely -- K.M., Lake Worth, U.S.

 

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07/01/2010
 
Follow-up: Rescuing Frozen Embryos PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics   

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This question is very insightful and well formulated. Although I believe that embryo adoption is in principle legitimate and even can be praiseworthy, the problem of unintended harmful consequences is very real.

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04/01/2010
 
Rescuing Frozen Embryos: Is Adoption a Valid Moral Option? PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics   

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When I speak publically on bioethical issues, the topic I most frequently address is the problem of the terrible exploitation of human embryos.

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03/19/2010
 
MEILAENDER ON GENETIC ADVANCE AND PRENATAL SCREENING PDF
by William E. May, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow   

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Meilaender takes these topics up in chapters 4 and 5, of his Bioethics: A Primer for Christians. I will devote more space to the first issue.

CHAPTER 4, GENETIC ADVANCE (pp. 38-47)
Summary and Comment
Meilaender’s principal concern in this chapter centers on a new kind of medical therapy aimed at curing persons suffering from or genetically disposed to different genetically caused diseases such as Down Syndrome, sickle-cell anemia, diabetes, and many, many others. After describing how some of these diseases are caused genetically, Meilaender then examines the basic forms of genetic therapy: germ cell therapy and somatic cell therapy. Modifications of germ cells (i.e., the cells proper to males and females, sperm and ova respectively, that when united become a newly conceived human person) are passed on to future generations whereas modifications of somatic cells (=equals the cells found in different parts of an individual’s body, e.g., in one’s brain, pancreas, liver, colon, etc.) are not and affect only the individual whose somatic cells are modified (39-41). Meilaender repudiates germ cell therapy, judging its supposed great benefit—the overcoming of disease not just in one person but in future generations--to be its “greatest danger…[which] C. S. Lewis memorably characterized as the ‘abolition of man.’” By this Meilaender and Lewis mean that the risks of such therapy and the harmful effects it might have on our children and grandchildren are not known to man but only to God—and we are not God and ought not “play” God. On the other hand, the moral questions raised by somatic cell therapy do not call for “the no that should be spoken to germ cell modification but for caution and a willingness to distinguish acceptable from unacceptable aims of therapy” (42-43).

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01/27/2010
 
USCCB Pastoral Letter: “Life-Giving Love in an Age of Technology” Specific Reproductive Technologies PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics   

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This is the second part of a two-part series on the U.S. Bishops’ newdocument on reproductive technology, Life-Giving Love in an Age ofTechnology, issued on November 17(www.usccb.org/LifeGivingLove/lifegivinglovedocument.pdf ).  In thefirst essay I discussed the document’s ethical framework for analyzingparticular forms of reproductive assistance.  In this essay I reviewthe document’s ethical teaching on the following forms: using gametedonors, surrogate motherhood, homologous artificial insemination, invitro fertilization, and cloning.  Each consideration is brief.  Ifinterest is expressed, I’d be happy to develop one or another of thearguments in a future blast.

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12/21/2009
 
HEALTH CARE ACTION ALERT! PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow   

Health Care

Action Alert!

 

Pro-life amendment killed

- By now you have probably heard that yesterday Senator Barbara Boxer offered a motion to table (i.e., eliminate chances of voting on) the Pro-life Nelson Amendment, which would have excluded federal funding for abortion in the Senate Health Care Bill.

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12/09/2009
 
REVIEW ESSAY OF ROBERT P. GEORGE AND CHRISTOPHER TOLLEFSEN, EMBRYO: A DEFENSE OF HUMAN LIFE: Part II PDF
by William E. May, Ph.D., Senior Fellow   

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In this Part I summarize Chapters 5 though 8 and offer reflections and comments on this very important book.

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11/30/2009
 
PRIMER ON BIOETHICS: Part I of II PDF
by William E. May, Ph.D., Senior Fellow   
130907_master_bioetica_0708_-_th.jpgThe term “bioethics” is of recent coinage. The first to use it was Van Rensselaer of the University of Wisconsin in the late 1960’s, an oncologist who used it in an evolutionary sense somewhat distant from the sense it has acquired. Warren T. Reich, one of the original professors at what was then called the “The Joseph and Rose Kennedy Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction and Bioethics” at Georgetown University and editor of the first edition of the 4 volume Encyclopedia of Bioethics, credits André Hellegers, the Dutch obstetrician/fetal physiologist/demographer who founded the Kennedy Institute at Georgetown University as the one “who used the term to apply to the ethics of medicine and the biological sciences in such a way that the name caught on in academic circles and in the mind of the public. He did this initially by seeing to it that the word bioethics appeared in the original name of the Kennedy Institute at its founding in 1971: The Joseph and Rose Kennedy Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction and Bioethics” (see Reich’s essay, “How Bioethics Got Its Name” in The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 23, 1993).
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06/16/2009
 
Reply to the Jesuit Consortium PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics   
christian_new.jpgEarlier this year, seven directors of bioethics programs at Jesuit universities, calling themselves the Consortium of Jesuit Bioethics Programs, published in Commonweal a critique of papal teaching on the moral requirement to provide food and water to patients in the so-called persistent vegetative state (PVS). [1] Their aim is to influence the American bishops against amending the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs) to bring the directives in line with the March 2004 teach¬ing of Pope John Paul II on PVS. [2] The amendment will be considered at the bishops’ June 2009 meeting.
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06/11/2009
 
NATURE SPEAKS. ARE WE LISTENING?: Geron’s rush to clinical trials using hESCs PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics   
christian_new.jpgEven those minimally familiar with the stem cell debate are aware of the vast disparity that presently exists between the clinical usefulness of human adult stem cells (hASCs) and embryonic stem cells (hESCs).  Not only have hESCs, despite billions of dollars spent, not given rise to a single clinical success (none, zero); but until recently, there had not even been a single clinical trial using hESCs accepted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  This illustrates the concern of that regulatory body and the wider field for the serious problems associated with hESC therapies, the most serious of which is tumor formation.
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05/26/2009
 
Human Cloning and the Inimitable Panos Zavos PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics   
christian_new.jpgCypriot born reproductive scientist Panos Zavos is up to his old mischief, claiming this time to have cloned 14 human embryos and to have transferred 11 of them into the wombs of four women happy to give birth to cloned babies.  This is his third public announcement in six years claiming to have succeeded at the controversial procedure [1].  Zavos, a naturalized American citizen, has fertility clinics in Kentucky and in Cyprus.  The British Independent reports that his present work took place at a secret laboratory in a country where cloning is legal (it speculates somewhere in the Middle East) [2].
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05/07/2009
 
More on Embryonic Stem Cells (For the not-so-dummies) PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics   
christian_new.jpgBecause of heightened interest in my last piece, Stem Cells for Dummies, I decided to pursue further questions pertaining to scientific interest in embryonic stem cells (ESCs).
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04/09/2009
 
STEM CELLS FOR DUMMIES PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics   
christian_new.jpgWhat is a Stem Cell?
A stem cell is an undifferentiated cell (i.e., a cell that has not yet specialized into a particular cell type, e.g., liver cell, pancreatic cell, or cardiac cell) with two unique capacities: the first, for rapid and prolonged self-multiplication into daughter cells identical with itself; and the second, for development and differentiation into specific types of cells such as liver and cardiac cells.
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03/19/2009
 
Where’s the Dignity? Mother of Fourteen Becomes Media’s “Octomom” PDF
by Helen Alvaré, J.D., Senior Fellow in Law   
alvare_h.jpgThe headlines blared “Octomom fell fast from miracle mom to punch line,” and “Octomom erupts.” The stories were referring to a woman,  Nadya Suleman, who had given birth to eight living babies by means of in vitro fertilization using donor sperm.  The search for the identity of the father was not long in coming: “Man Gave Sperm 3 Times, Believes He May Be Octuplets’ Dad” (followed by the subheading: Tune in to ABC News’ “Good Morning America” Monday Feb. 23 to learn the identity of the man who possibly fathered the Suleman octuplets.”) This was followed by the response headline: “Octo-Mom: He’s Not the Dad” a story which ended with the observations “But it looks like his 15 minutes of fame are over before they began!” Social networking websites are hosting “clubs” supporting or bashing Ms. Suleman, and a YouTube music video features a Suleman impersonator spewing babies while a doctor catches them in a baseball glove.
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02/25/2009
 
“BIRTH CONTROL MEANS HEALTH, HAPPINESS, PERFECT CHILDREN” QUESTIONING A CULTURAL PANACEA PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics   
christian.jpgThink of it.  A country on the verge of a Depression; its most powerful financial institutions crumbling; the whole world in the grip of uncertainty; millions unemployed; foreclosures too numerous to count; … and the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives defends spending enormous taxpayer sums on contraception: ‘it will save millions;’ ‘help rescue states from bankruptcy;’ ‘protect women;’ ‘reduce the number of pesky children.’ 
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02/12/2009
 
Summary and Reflections on DIGNITAS PERSONAE PDF
by William E. May, Ph.D., Senior Fellow   

william_e_may.jpgSeptember 8, 2008 is the official date of a new doctrinal document prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and approved by Pope Benedict XVI on bioethical issues.  It is a sequel to the CDF’s February 1987 doctrinal Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origins and on the Dignity of Procreation (Latin title Donum vitae). Dignitas Personae (henceforth DP), formally released for publication on December 12, 2008, is of a doctrinal nature and falls within the category of documents that "participate in the ordinary Magisterium of the successor of Peter" (see Instruction Donum veritatis, no.18), and is to be received by Catholics "with the religious assent of their spirit" (DP, no. 37).

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01/15/2009
 
The Legal and Political Prognosis for Embryonic Stem Cell Research PDF
by Helen M. Alvaré, J.D., Senior Fellow in Law   
alvare_h.jpgIncoming President Barack Obama’s strenuous support for legal abortion is well-known. His unbridled enthusiasm for destructive embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) is likely less visible to most Americans.  But President-elect Obama’s statements about ESCR throughout his campaign, and his behavior as a U.S. Senator, make him a ‘warrior” for the cause no less fierce that (now-disgraced) Senator John Edwards, who famously over-stated that if the federal government had funded ESCR all along, the late actor Christoper Reeve might have “[gotten] up out of that wheelchair and walk[ed] again.”  (CNN.com. Frist Knocks Edwards for Comment on Christoper Reeves, cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS.10/12/edwards.stem.cell/, Oct. 12, 2004).  Fast forward four years, and science is demonstrating, as (Dr. E. Christian Brugger wrote in his recent “Morning of the Stem Cell Revolution) that it is adult stem cell research which is providing actual patient treatments.


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01/07/2009
 
Morning of the Stem Cell Revolution PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, P.h.D, Senior Fellow in Ethics   
christian.jpgImagine a day when patients suffering from tuberculosis could go down to a hospital and trade in their diseased windpipes for a brand-spanking-new model custom built from their own cells and live free of the disease.  Or where parents of congenitally brain damaged children could purchase a blood transfusion cocktail that would unlock the world of mental normality for their beloved children.  Or where heart-attack victims could receive cardiac injections of miracle cells that not only would heal their damaged heart muscle, but also stimulate new blood vessel growth in their hearts and reduce scar tissue from the injury?  Say ‘good morning’ to the stem cell revolution because that day has begun.  I should be more precise: the ADULT stem cell revolution HAS BEGUN.  Remarkably, these are not the dreams of some distant future but the treatments and possibilities opening before us right now.
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12/11/2008
 
COURAGIO PRO-LIFERS! - Statement of E. Christian Brugger on Election of Obama PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics   

christian_new.jpgLike many concerned with the welfare of vulnerable human life, the results of the Nov. 4 election have led me to question where our country is going.  Do the results imply we are growing more tolerant of abortion?  After three and a half decades of strenuous effort to sensitize our friends and neighbors to the ‘silent screams’ of the unborn, does the electoral outcome mean we’re losing the battle for the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens?  Does electing a president as politically tolerant of killing human embryos, fetuses and newborns as Barack Obama mean our country’s moral callousness is thickening? What does the Obama victory foreshadow for the future of preborn human life in our country?

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11/12/2008
 
Cloning on the International Scene: The Fate of the “United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning” PDF
by E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics   
un_pic.jpgAn important UN meeting is being held this week in Paris to reconsider the content of the 2005 Declaration on Human Cloning, a document described to me recently by a pro-life friend involved in its passage as an “amazing victory” for the pro-life side.  I’d like to give some background on the passage and content of the document and then give my own reading of what the current meeting is up to.
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10/30/2008
 
One Man’s Dying Wish—Literally a Death Wish PDF
by Christian Brugger, Ph.D   
dying_wish.jpgThose from the East Coast may not know the name of Booth Gardner.  But West Coast folks know it well.  Gardner was a two-term Democratic Governor of Washington State between 1985 and 1993.  He is also a multimillionaire heir of the Weyerhaeuser fortune, the billion dollar pulp and paper company.  The 71 year old Gardner is suffering from Parkinson’s disease and has taken upon himself one last fantastic political campaign: “The biggest fight of my career,” he said in a December 2, 2007, New York Times article.  The nature of the campaign?  To eradicate Parkinson’s disease?  To assist families struggling with chronically ill members?  No.  Rather, to legalize doctor-assisted self-killing in all 50 states.  Gardner is the big money, celebrity endorsement and Promethean energy behind Washington State’s Initiative 1000, the assisted suicide law which residents of Washington will vote upon on November 4. 
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10/15/2008
 
Stem Cell Updates PDF
by Christian Brugger Ph.D   
christianbrugger.jpgA few encouraging stem cell updates.  First, last month the online journal Nature published the results of experiments in mice by a team at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in which common cells in the pancreas were converted into more precious insulin producing cells, precisely the kind that diabetics need to survive.  And the most extraordinary thing: the conversion took place inside the body of the living mice.  
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10/02/2008
 
Review of Smith-Kaczor book "Life Issues, Medical Choices: Questions and Answers for Catholics" PDF
by William E. May, Ph.D   

smithkaczorbook.jpgThis helpful book could be called  “Catholic Bioethics for Everyone.” Dividing their material into an introduction and seven chapters subdivided into 57 questions, Smith and Kaczor offer a broad view of major life issues in easy-to-understand language. One of their major goals is to help fellow Catholics and others to understand the reasons behind Church teaching on crucial issues concerning human life; they also hope that their presentation of fundamental principles will guide readers in making their own choices on disputed questions on which the Church has not taken a firm stance (pp. xiii-xix).

 

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09/22/2008
 
Domestic Adoption: An Approach to the Frozen Embryo Crisis PDF
by Christian Brugger Ph.D   
babies.jpgI spoke recently at a conference on embryo adoption funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and joint sponsored by two agencies (led largely by devout Protestants) committed to facilitating the adoption of frozen embryos (i.e., the National Embryo Donation Center and Bethany Christian Services).  Its purpose was to raise public awareness of the problem of frozen embryos and to point the way to a possible life-saving alternative.  Everyone present agreed that something needed to be done about the 500,000 frozen embryos presently stranded in U.S. “concentration cans” (to use the late Jérome Lejeune’s poignant term).  Most agreed that the embryo has a unique moral status.  Some thought the status was that of a human person.  And a small minority (myself included) thought the problem stemmed in the first place from our societal toleration of IVF.  Most present were professionals involved in some way with embryo adoption or interested in getting involved (physicians, nurses, lawyers, academics) along with several couples who either have adopted and gestated embryos or put their embryos up for adoption.
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06/05/2008
 
From Changing Hearts and Minds to Changing Laws Part II PDF
by Christian Brugger Ph.D   

embryo.jpgMy last E-Brief replied to a number of common arguments denying the humanity/ personhood of the human embryo.  Since then, defenders of nascent human life suffered several serious defeats in Great Britain.  On May 19th, British MPs voted to defeat three important pro-life amendments to the controversial Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill passing through Parliament. 
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05/22/2008
 
From Changing Hearts and Minds to Changing Laws Part II PDF
by Christian Brugger Ph.D   

embryo.jpgMy last E-Brief replied to a number of common arguments denying the humanity/ personhood of the human embryo.  Since then, defenders of nascent human life suffered several serious defeats in Great Britain.  On May 19th, British MPs voted to defeat three important pro-life amendments to the controversial Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill passing through Parliament. 
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05/22/2008
 
"Killing the Patient: Arguments For and Against the Personhood of the Embryo" PDF
by Christian Brugger Ph.D   
christianbrugger.jpgPart I - The unjust treatment of human embryos in the U.S. and in the world is an unspeakable moral catastrophe rivaling some of humankind’s greatest evils!
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05/02/2008
 
Bovine Frankenstein: UK and the Controversial Bioethics Law PDF
by Christian Brugger, Ph.D.   

Genetically Engineered Cow

Lest anyone is tempted to think that the debate over hybrid embryo creation is premature, the troubling announcement on April Fools Day (4/1) that a research team at Newcastle University in England had successfully created the first part-human part-animal hybrid embryo (cow egg, human somatic cell nucleus) in the UK will make clear how late in the day the time actually is.  The embryo survived for three days.  Parliament will debate next month the morality and utility of socially sanctioning the creation of such embryos. 

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04/04/2008
 
“I am no more me today than when I was an embryo, although there is more of me today” PDF
by Christian Brugger, Ph.D.   

christianbrugger.jpgFellow in Ethics Christian Brugger clarifies, in layman terms, what it is to be: To be who we are when we were an embryo.

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03/20/2008
 
The Secular Turn of Bioethics PDF
by Joseph Tham, MD, Ph.D   
ImageFor many people, bioethics is a big word that speaks of heated controversies about cloning, stem cell research or end of life issues.  These debates appear to pit the religious against the secular, and the conservatives against the liberal establishment.  While there is some truth to that, it is a little known fact that bioethics has a humble origin with roots that are religious.  The story of how bioethics turned its back on its former allegiance is all the more pressing since this knowledge can shed some light on the current controversies.
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03/07/2008
 
iPSCs Brief: Good Science, Good Morals. Spread the Word! PDF
by Christian Brugger, Ph.D   
christianbrugger.jpgCulture of Life Fellow in Ethics, Dr. Christian Brugger, explains the development, process, ethics and scientific contributions of Induced Pluripotent State Stem Cells.
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03/07/2008
 
On the facts, money and future of the embryo for 2008 PDF
by Christian Brugger, Ph.D   
Image"I’m talking about embryo destructive experimentation.  The imminent danger is not that scientists will begin to create and destroy human embryos.  That’s been going on for a long time, as had abortion in the U.S. before 1973... The problem is rather the institutionalization of the creation of human life for destructive purposes funded by the federal government."  
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01/18/2008
 
On religious objections to the use of vaccines derived from aborted fetuses - A case study PDF
by Joe Capizzi, Ph.D.   
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Recently a Catholic U.S. Coast Guard officer filed suit to prevent being forced to receive a vaccination he believed morally objectionable since the vaccine derived from the remains of an aborted child. The officer, Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Healy filed a complaint just last week, charging the government with using “its own arbitrary judgment of what constitutes Catholic theology while permitting religious exemptions to others.”

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01/16/2008
 
Prof. Robert George in the National Catholic Register on "The Year of the Embryo" PDF
by Robert. P. George, Ph.D.   
Princeton Professor and Culture of Life Board Member Robert George speaks to the National Catholic Register shedding light and perspective on the milestones of 2007, in "The Year of the Embryo". 
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01/07/2008
 
Pluripotent not Embryonic PDF
by Jennifer Kimball, B.E.L.   
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A collage of headlines covering Monday’s breakthrough in stem cell research, published in the scientific journals, Science and Cell, attempt to state what, to many, is not so obvious.   What we have found are pluripotent stem cells, equal to, but not to be confused with pluripotent embryonic stem cells.

 
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11/21/2007
 
Neither Man nor Beast - Britain allows scientists to create human/animal hybrids PDF
by William L. Saunders, Esq.   
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On Sept. 5, a government agency (called the Human Fertilization and Embryology Agency or HFEA) decided to let scientists, mad or otherwise, create human/animal hybrids. Let me repeat: Science fiction will become science fact very soon; and man and beast will be combined into one.

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11/13/2007
 
American Scientists Announce Intent to Clone Humans for Research PDF
by Mark Adams   
Scientists from Harvard and California announced at a recent conference their intent to clone human embryos and destroy them for their stem cells and are hoping to succeed where disgraced South Korean scientist Woo-Suk Hwang dramatically failed. Hwang, who claimed to be the first in the world to successfully clone humans, was discredited in January after it was revealed he had fabricated almost all of his data.
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04/19/2006
 
German Scientists May Have Found Ethical Source of Pluripotent Stem Cells PDF
by Mark Adams   
Scientists in Germany have discovered another possible source for embryonic-like stem cells that can be obtained without destroying a human embryonic life. Researchers found that stem cells taken from the testes of mice have many of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells. The scientists were able to take those stem cells and turn them into heart, brain and skin cells and successfully inject them back into mice.
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03/29/2006
 
When a Consensus Isn't a Consensus PDF
by Bill Saunders, Esq.   
Sixty scientists, doctors, philosophers, lawyers, scientific journal editors and federal regulators met in England last month to produce a "consensus statement" on stem cells and ethics. But what they produced is hardly something we should all agree to.
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03/16/2006
 
Proposed Missouri Cloning "Ban" Would Allow for Human Experimental Cloning PDF
by Culture of Life   
Missouri voters will soon get to vote on a Constitutional amendment that will allow for human cloning for the purposes of experimentation and death of the embryo. Drafters of the proposed amendment, however, have crafted language that may fool some voters into thinking they are voting for a total ban on human cloning.
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02/15/2006
 
RU-486: Killer Pills PDF
by Wendy Wright   
The FDA broke its own rules in the fast-track approval of the “abortion pill.” Sadly, women are paying with their lives. Most people assume that advances made in medicine and science are helpful—and save lives. Regrettably, that is not always true. In the case of the abortion pill, RU-486, women are not helped—and lives are certainly not saved. Yet in September of 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved RU-486, or Mifeprex, for sale in the United States—a drug whose only purpose is to kill human beings.
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01/31/2006
 
High Court Curtails Controlled Substances Act In Favor of Practice of Assisted Suicide PDF
by Culture of Life   
Yesterday, the Supreme Court sided with the State of Oregon in its lawsuit to overturn the regulations that prevent the use of federally controlled substances in assisted suicides.
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01/18/2006
 
Scientific Community Seriously Damaged by Phony Stem Cell Claims PDF
by Culture of Life   
Revelations that South Korean doctor Woo Suk Hwang, once thought to be the groundbreaking creator of the world's first cloned human embryos, fabricated all of his research has forced many mainstream media outlets to concede that human cloning and embryo destructive research were dealt a serious blow by the scandal. Despite efforts by some proponents of cloning to spin the story into a case for federally-funded research, Hwang has been largely portrayed as a disgraced scientist who has thrown the future of human cloning into jeopardy.
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01/04/2006
 
President Bush Signs Ethical Stem Cell Bill Over Democrat Objections PDF
by Culture of Life   
Following what amounted to a seven month filibuster on the part of Senate Democrats President Bush signed into law a bill establishing a national bank for stem cells derived from umbilical cords. Umbilical cord stem cells have been used to treat 67 different diseases including leukemia and anemia and obtaining them poses no ethical problems.
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12/28/2005