Once induced pluripotent stem cells hit the scene, human cloning slowly faded away. Why clone embryos with human eggs (exploiting women in the process) to get “patient-specific” embryonic stem cells when you can just take an adult cell and reprogram it back to an embryonic-like state? No eggs, no cloning, no creating and destroying embryos.But [...]
Researchers who justify the killing of human beings at the embryonic stage “demean” themselves and diminish their own humanity, an American ethicist told LifeSiteNews.com at the Vatican’s stem cell conference last month. By willingly participating in an evil, even to bring about a great good like cures for diseases, “You demean yourself, you make yourself [...]
Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which oversees fertility treatments and embryo research in that nation, recently recommended that the creation of children with three genetic parents be allowed to move forward. Currently, it is illegal to transfer genetically modified embryos to a woman in Britain. The HFEA blessing will likely be used by lawmakers [...]
This is not an article about the reasons why chicken eggs may or may not be good for your health. This is an article about eggs that hold much more importance, for they are the eggs produced by females during their fertile time. But hold on to your seats, because there’s trouble all right. Lots [...]
It was a surprising announcement indeed that Pope Benedict made this week. Of course, a Pope has the authority to say he will no longer be the Pope. But this will certainly be a new experience for the Church in our day. Having worked in the Vatican, it also raises some interesting protocol questions in [...]
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Pope Benedict XVI’s impending resignation, announced this morning, has opened the usual spate of questions prior to a conclave, as well as new ones about the status of a living Pope emeritus. Among some pro-lifers there is lots of buzz about whether the new pontiff will be pro-life, as was John Paul II. It’s an [...]
These days it seems we have a “right” to everything except the rights that are actually given to us by our Creator and enumerated in the Constitution. According to this article from the MIT Technology Review we even have a “right to consumer genetics.” What exactly is consumer genetics? Well, you can go about getting your genes [...]
Anyone who has seen the latest DROID DNA smart phone ads realizes that such devices have become nearly inseparable from man’s person. As a matter of fact, the ads suggest that the phone is so much a part of the person that even his intelligence will be improved by merely using the phone. These are superb sales [...]
In an attempt to stop the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, two researchers sued the Obama Administration saying that the administration’s funding of research that requires the destruction of a human embryo violates the Dickey Amendment. Unfortunately, while a lower court agreed that using tax-payer money to fund embryonic stem cell research is [...]
Peering into the abyss of biotechnology, I have often mused that the problem with much of what goes on in fertility clinics and laboratories of the world is a denial of human nature. The denial that living human organisms, regardless of how they are created, are indeed human beings. They are small and immature, but [...]
As a new year approaches, we naturally reflect on the one past. While it’s easy to get caught up in the negatives of the past year, we must identify and focus on the positive things that have happened as well. When we do this, we see that there are many reasons to look to this [...]
The German Federal Court (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH = the supreme judicial instance in Germany in all matters pertaining to civil law) has yesterday issued the final decision in the case Brüstle vs. Greenpeace. Mr. Brüstle is a German researcher who has submitted a patent claim with regard to embryonic stemcells. Greenpeace is an environmentalist NGO that [...]
I spent many, many, many hours in the lab testing people for mutations known to cause cystic fibrosis (CF). CF is a genetic disease caused by mutations in a gene called the CFTR gene. If a person has a deleterious mutation in both copies of his or her CFTR gene (one mutation inherited from dad, [...]
The other day my family made me sit down and watch the new Spider-Man movie, The Amazing Spider-Man. I don’t know why they had to make yet another Spider-Man flick, but for the sake of family unity I cuddled up on the coach and watched. Recently, I hit a bunch of unsuspecting Catholic women at [...]
Last Tuesday night I watched in disbelief as a slim majority of Americans voted to give Barack Hussein Obama a second term as president, but in the clear light of morning it is clear how this debacle happened—and what the pro-life movement needs to focus on now. I do not mean to make light of [...]
News last week from AP that a research team at Oregon Health and Sciences University has replicated work done a few years ago in Britain, constructing a human embryo by using the eggs of two mothers and a father’s sperm. Read it at FoxNews The goal here is to prevent diseases that arise from genetic [...]
The short answer to the very complex question posed in the title of this article is this: We actually don’t know, yet. That is to say that the official teaching body of the Catholic Church, the Magisterium, has not yet issued a final stance on this specific topic. The debate among Church theologians began in earnest [...]
Today is the feast of Blessed John Paul II. He is often referred to as John Paul the Great, but I will always know him simply as JPII. No doubt he was a mighty world/religious leader, but to many of us who grew up under his pontificate, he was also a gentle and humble shepherd [...]
As a former California girl, I am aware that my state of origin is full of contradictions like women who are on the Pill eating nothing but organically grown produce. Back in 2004 Californians overwhelmingly voted with Prop 71 to publicly fund embryonic stem cell research with billions of dollars because they were told that [...]
Last week I wrote about some pro-life objections to induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology. Yes there are some objections surrounding iPSCs, but I hold that iPSCs themselves are not inherently immoral. Cell lines of illicit origin have been used in developing this technology (and unfortunately are used ubiquitously in many areas of research), and [...]
There has been a lot of talk about Dr. Yamanaka and his work on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) since he won the Nobel Prize earlier this week. There have even been some rumblings that pro-lifers should not be so happy about iPSCs since they are not “100% pro-life.” Before I list the objections that [...]
The man that envisioned a better way than destroying human embryos to get embryonic-like stem cells has won the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Dr. Shinya Yamanaka developed the technique to take an adult cell and reprogram it to an embryonic-like state as a way to avoid the destruction of human embryos. Dr. Yamanka’s reprogrammed adult [...]
Happy October! And what a month it will be! There are various powerful observances and events this month whose themes reinforce one another and the overall mission of the Church on behalf of human life. It is, first of all, Respect Life Month. It’s a time to let the pulpits roar with the Church’s Biblical [...]
