There is new information that the so-called moral alternative to embryonic stem cells, ESC pioneered by Dr. Shinya Yamanaka and Dr. James Thomson, that turns adult skin cells into induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells may not be so moral after all, as the DNA used to create the lentivirus that reprogrammed the adult skin cells actually came from several of the known 293 aborted fetal stem cell lines.
In effect they just did not kill any new embryos.
Dr. Yamanaka's source of DNA was called HEK (human embryonic kidney) 293. The cells were obtained from an electively aborted baby by Dr. Alex Van der Eb, of Crucell NV, the same company producing aborted fetal cell line PER C6, derived from the retinal tissue of an 18-week gestation baby, this according to Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director of Children of God for Life.
However, it is not necessary to use aborted fetal cells to produce the lentivirus at all, noted Dr Theresa Deisher, R&D Director of Ave Maria Biotechnology Company, a research firm dedicated to pro-life alternatives for unethical human therapeutics.
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There are in fact procedures available for obtaining human stem cells that do not require the destruction of human embryos. This is precisely what makes this all the more perverse.
Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D., among many others, has pointed out that "Creditable laboratories have identified a wide variety of sources for pluripotential cells with the capability of embryonic stem cells. For example, stem cells from the bone marrow, placenta, or umbilical cord of live births are already in use in treating lukemia. Work currently in progress indicates that such cells can be altered to develop into cartilege and bone tissue and used in replacing diseased bone tissue. Recently, (1998) neural stem cells were successfully isolated from living nerve tissue...and show promise for possible use in treating Parkinson's disease or brain injuries."
It is not only gravely immoral, but totally unneccessary to destroy human embryos.
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cleghornboy@juno.com
Pax Christi.
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