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Adult Cells Reverted to Embryonic

This research is potentially exciting, but is still very early. Japanese researchers have apparently reverted mouse adult cells into an embryonic state. The research is one area of “alternative methods” that offer a way to heal the current breach (as some see it) between ethics and . . . . Continue Reading »

CNN Admits Adult Stem Cells More Advanced

Sometimes the right hand of the media doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. So, while news side often regurgitates the mantra that ESCR offers the best chance for cures, every once in a while the business side of the media reflects the reality on the ground that adult stem cells are far . . . . Continue Reading »

Voting Against Science and Ethics

When a minority of the House of Representatives blocked a Senate bill that passed 100-0, authored by pro ESCR Senator Arlen Specter and anti ESCR Rick Santorum, which would have funded research into “alternative sources” of obtaining pluripotent stem cells, they voted against science and . . . . Continue Reading »

Beginning of End for Texas Futile Care Law?

Readers of Secondhand Smoke know how adamantly opposed I am to futile care theory. Texas, as the moment, is the prime offender. The law permits hospital ethics committees to order the refusal of wanted life-sustaining treatment, at which point, the patient and family have a mere ten days to find . . . . Continue Reading »

Stem Cell Therapies Not Risk Free

Every medical treatment has some risk associated with it, even those which are clearly established and undoubtedly efficacious. This includes adult/umbilical cord blood therapies, such as using bone marrow to treat leukemia. Case in point: World famous musher Susan Butcher died recently of . . . . Continue Reading »

Fetal Farming for Cosmetic Purposes

There is a terrible story (how often I have to write those words!) in the Daily Mail (UK) about women getting beauty treatments from fetal stem cells derived from abortions, with the allegation that poor women in the Ukraine are being paid $200 US to get pregnant and abort at 12 weeks for this . . . . Continue Reading »

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