Road Trip

I ran into Kevin O'Brien during the march for Life on Tuesday January 22nd. He's the tall guy on the right. If you're even in Milwaukee Wisconsin, just ask for Kevin.

Kevin started the First Friday Masses and all night Eucharistic Adoration at the Problem Pregnancy Chapel just over four years ago. Now he's helping the Diocese of Milwaukee run their Catholic Men's Conference.

March for Life

The March for Life is Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 in Washington DC.
Buses will leave St. Paul’s Cathedral in Worcester, MA for the March for Life after a 7PM Mass on Monday January 21, arriving in DC in the early morning. Buses will leave DC around 4-5PM Tuesday, arriving back in Worcester after midnight.

Buses for Springfield area

Moral alternative to ESC?

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.