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VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI stressed the church's opposition to abortion and stem cell research in his first meeting with President Barack Obama on Friday, pressing the Vatican's case with the U.S. leader who is already under fire on those issues from some conservative Catholics and bishops back home...Afterward, the Vatican said the leaders discussed immigration, the Middle East peace process and aid to developing nations. But the Vatican's statement also underscored the pair's deep disagreement on abortion. "In the course of their cordial exchanges, the conversation turned first of all to questions which are in the interest of...

GE Healthcare, the medical research subsidiary of General Electric, has formed a partnership with a leading U.S. biotech company to develop products based on human embryonic stem cells that can be used to develop new drugs. On June 30, GE Healthcare and Geron Corporation announced a multi-year alliance where Geron will provide GE scientists with an undisclosed amount of human embryonic stem cells. The human cells will be used “to develop and commercialize cellular assay products derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) for use in drug discovery, development and toxicity screening,” according to a news release. GE Healthcare, which...

BOSTON, Mass, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - General Electric has announced that it will use embryonic stem cells provided by Geron Corporation for the purpose of testing toxic effects of drug treatments.GE issued a statement, attempting to preempt criticism over the decision, saying, "We acknowledge the considerable debate and take very seriously the ethical and societal issues associated with research using stem cells derived from embryonic or fetal tissue.""We conduct our research in an ethically and scientifically responsible manner," the statement said.However, embryonic stem cells have been the center of heated controversy since harvesting the cells requires the destruction...

Science: The president's Council on Bioethics is summarily dismissed when it disagrees on the need for more federally funded embryonic stem cell research. The scientific method doesn't include firing those who disagree with you.Inspectors general are apparently not the only ones to pay for annoying the White House by doing their job. The 18-member council existed to provide the president with advice on the moral and ethical implications of the rapid advances in science and medical research. It exists no more. The council existed to ponder whether we should do something just because we can. Apparently President Obama wanted not...

LifeNews.com Note: Dr. David Prentice is Senior Fellow for Life Sciences at Family Research Council. Up to July 2004 he had spent almost 20 years as Professor of Life Sciences, Indiana State University, and Adjunct Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine.The President's Council on Bioethics is no more. With a one-day notice, the members were told in a letter from the President that their services were no longer required. Pack up, get out. Forget the fact that they had a couple of interesting reports coming out soon, one more meeting, and that the Council's tenure...

Comments Deadline: 11:00pm EST on May 26, 2009. snip Please enter your comments on the Draft NIH Human Stem Cell Guidelines, as announced in the April 23, 2009 Federal Register Notice. Please reference specific sections in the document, when applicable. Please note that comments will be publicly available, including those containing personally identifiable or confidential business information.

A troubling story out of London reflects the continued downward spiral the West is on as turning human persons into commodities to be sold or experimented upon becomes increasingly acceptable. The article in the “Daily Mail” entitled “Storm over embryo 'bank' which could be used as a body repair kit” noted: “Couples could be allowed to store embryos in order to use them to create new body parts or cure diseases. Government legal and ethical experts are to discuss whether families can ‘bank’ embryos not just for procreation but also for use by doctors to create personalised treatments for parents...

More proof in that embryonic stem cell research is not--and never has been--about getting some use out of leftover IVF embryos that are due to be destroyed anyway. A serious proposal has been forwarded to make embryos for the purpose of storing them as a source of future medical need. From the story: Couples could be allowed to store embryos in order to use them to create new body parts or cure diseases. Government legal and ethical experts are to discuss whether families can 'bank' embryos not just for procreation but also for use by doctors to create personalised...

BRITISH scientists have developed the world’s first stem cell therapy to cure the most common cause of blindness. Surgeons predict it will become a routine, one-hour procedure that will be generally available in six or seven years’ time. The treatment involves replacing a layer of degenerated cells with new ones created from embryonic stem cells. It was pioneered by scientists and surgeons from the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London and Moorfields eye hospital.

BRITISH scientists have developed the world’s first stem cell therapy to cure the most common cause of blindness. Surgeons predict it will become a routine, one-hour procedure that will be generally available in six or seven years’ time. The treatment involves replacing a layer of degenerated cells with new ones created from embryonic stem cells. It was pioneered by scientists and surgeons from the Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London and Moorfields eye hospital. This week Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical research company, will announce its financial backing to bring the therapy to patients. The treatment will tackle age-related...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi forcefully responded to conservative critics of government funding for programs like stem cell research today, saying that under the Bush administration "we've had a situation where it's faith or science - take your pick." "We're saying science is an answer to our prayers," the San Francisco Democrat said.

LifeNews.com Note: Joseph Infranco is senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance employing a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.   On March 9, with a stroke of his pen, President Obama signed an executive order that provides federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The president’s terse but chilling justification was that “science should trump ideology.” The statement is a masterpiece of legerdemain, disguising its false premise and frightening implications while miscommunicating the nature and meaning of science. The first...

A team of UCSF researchers has for the first time used tiny molecules called microRNAs to help turn adult mouse cells back to their embryonic state. These reprogrammed cells are pluripotent, meaning that, like embryonic stem cells, they have the capacity to become any cell type in the body. The findings suggest that scientists will soon be able to replace retroviruses and even genes currently used in laboratory experiments to induce pluripotency in adult cells. This would make potential stem cell-based therapies safer by eliminating the risks posed to humans by these DNA-based methods, including alteration of the genome and...

Chicago, Ill., Apr 8, 2009 / 01:08 pm (CNA).- Yesterday, Dr. Mehment Oz appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show to voice his support for adult stem cell research and to argue that “the stem cell debate is dead,” but instead of giving his statement a fair hearing, Oprah’s website buried and edited Oz’s comments. Actor Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, was invited on the show to  talk about his struggle with Parkinson’s and his foundation’s endorsement of embryonic stem cell research (ESCR).Fox told Oprah that he believes President Obama’s decision lifting President Bush's restrictions on ESCR was...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A recent appearance by Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiovascular surgeon at Columbia University and a regular on Oprah Winfrey's popular eponymous television program, is generating buzz within pro-life circles. During the program, Oz told Americans the truth about embryonic stem cell research.Oz made it clear that the "stem cell debate is dead" mostly in part because embryonic stem cells have yet to catch up to their adult stem cell and iPS cell counterparts.The comments are drawing interest because Oz made them in front of the iconic television personality and embryonic stem cell research advocate Michael J....

ATLANTA -- By a vote of 108 to 61, the Georgia House sent the nation's first ever embryo adoption bill, HB 388, to the desk of Governor Sonny Perdue for him to sign into law. "We are pleased that we are making headway in our goal of establishing personhood for the pre-born" says Daniel Becker, President of Georgia Right to Life. "Gone are the terms designating the human child at an embryonic stage as property ... devoid of rights." says Becker. The language of the bill stops short of declaring full personhood for the child but does introduce new terms...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A leading pro-life group is warning members of Congress that they may soon face a vote on a bill that would result in funding the destruction of human embryos for research. National Right to Life is calling the bill a stem cell research "bait and switch" because of its duplicitous purpose.President Barack Obama recently overturned President Bush's limits on funding new embryonic stem cell research.Part of the rationale for his move is that so-called "leftover" human embryos would be destroyed anyway so why not kill them for research purposes and fund the research with taxpayer...

BRUSSELS, March 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A proposed new directive from the European Commission (EC) will drastically restrict the use of animals in laboratory testing, and certain toxicology tests on animals will be permitted only after alternative methods, including research on tissue taken from human embryos, has proved fruitless, reports the Catholic Herald. In its coverage of the issue, the Herald quotes a report accompanying the EC directive that says, "The establishment of human embryonic stem cells in 1998 raised hopes in many research areas, including the development of alternatives to animal experiments." The report says that human embryonic research is a...

A showdown is shaping up in some of the nation's most conservative states over embryonic stem cell research, as opponents draw language and tactics from the battle over abortion to counter President Barack Obama's plan to ease research restrictions. Legislation granting fertilized embryos "personhood" has gained momentum in at least three state legislatures. *snip*

WASHINGTON: For all the past week's headlines about embryonic stem cells' medical promise there is a sobering reality: The science to prove that promise will take years, probably too long for many of today's seriously ill. On his desk at Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard stem cell researcher Dr. George Daley keeps a file about 3 inches thick of e-mails and letters from patients and families who hope his work could help them. They are both inspiration and caution. "It took much of the 20th century to figure out how to deliver chemicals as drugs," noted Daley. "We should be humble...

I was shocked to hear from two sources that Obama is going to rescind Bush's policy of using Federal money from going for NONembryonic stem cell research. So Obama wants Federal dollars for immoral embryonic stem cell which do not work, but wants to take away money for ethical stem cells which DO work!

On Monday, President Obama lifted the ban on federal funding of stem-cell research using destroyed human embryos. If you support this research, congratulations: You won. Now for your next challenge: Don't lose your soul. Several months ago, opponents of embryo-destructive research gathered in Washington to celebrate Eric Cohen's book In the Shadow of Progress, which explores the moral costs of biotechnology. They asked me what I thought of the book. I told them that the book was beautiful and important because it represented the losing side of history. It spoke for values threatened with extinction by the coming triumph of...

President Barack Obama has signed an executive order that reverses the Bush administration's restrictions on federal funding for research that involves the destruction of human embryos. In a White House ceremony, President Obama said that Americans “have come to a consensus that we should pursue this research; that the potential it offers is great, and with proper guidelines and strict oversight the perils can be avoided.” The President made a campaign promise to take this action, but in the weeks just after his inauguration he had made comments suggesting that he would prefer for Congress to lift the Bush...

When a Democratic president goes from being wrong to being damn wrong is always an interesting moment: Bay of Pigs, Great Society, Jimmy Carter waking up on the morning after his inauguration, HillaryCare. Barack Obama condemned himself (and a number of human embryos to be determined at a later date) on March 9 when he signed an executive order reversing the Bush administration's restrictions on federal funding of stem cell research. President Obama went to hell not with the stroke of a pen, but with the cluck of a tongue. His executive order was an error. His statement at the...

When President Barack Obama signed his executive order to allow human embryos to be mined for their stem cells in order to help older, more powerful humans, there was much excited applause. The applause came from so many, their eyes bright, lit as if from within. It came from those who believe in scientific progress as the answer to the problems of the modern world, believing as fervently as any monk on the slopes of Mt. Athos believes in the Resurrection of Christ. In signing the order last week, the president said that the Bush administration, which strictly limited such...

<p>Last week, the White House invited me to a signing ceremony overturning the Bush (43) executive order on stem cell research. I assume this was because I have long argued in these columns and during my five years on the President's Council on Bioethics that, contrary to the Bush policy, federal funding should be extended to research on embryonic stem cell lines derived from discarded embryos in fertility clinics.</p>

Now, beside the fact that the Doctor’s failure to correct the former President’s error in the interview concerning the most mundane FACT of embryology, namely that to be an embryo the human ovum must be fertilized, the Doctor’s performance in the interview made me doubly glad he withdrew his name from consideration to be the top Doc of the United States. This man is a brain surgeon. He certainly knows this fact. Now, there are only two explanations for this blatant error in the former President’s response. Either he was not aware of the SCIENTIFIC, BIOLOGICAL FACT that human embryos...

Recently KVOA.com ran an online poll asking our viewers and readers if they agree or disagree with President Barack Obama's lifting of the ban on federal funds for embryonic stem cell research. Users from a national online community flooded the poll in favor of "no" votes. The question of the poll was, "Do you think the government should federally fund embryonic stem cell research. President Obama recently lifted a Bush created ban against federally funding embryonic stem cell research. Is it a good idea?" The purpose of the poll was to see where viewers and readers in our community stand...

Do you think the government should federally fund embryonic stem cell research.

President Obama today today announced the signing of a memorandum instructing the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to “develop a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision-making.” He promised to “base our public policies on the soundest science” and to “appoint scientific advisors based on their credentials and experience, not their politics or ideology.” [...] I was interested to see that this new memorandum instructs agency administrators to “have appropriate rules and procedures to ensure the integrity of the scientific process within the agency, including whistleblower protection.” Do you suppose this protection will inspire any government...

Lifting Limits on Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Politics over Science and Ethics March 09, 2009 In a column to be published in the March 12 Catholic Standard newspaper, Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl called the decision by President Barack Obama to void restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research “disheartening.” He went on to explain the Church’s support for ethical scientific research, such as adult stem cell research, noting its success over the past decades in addressing disease and illness. The column follows. Lifting Limits on Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Politics over Science and Ethics The announcement that...

USCCB News Release 09-052 March 9, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Executive Order on Embryonic Stem Cells 'A Sad Victory of Politics over Science and Ethics,' Says Cardinal Rigali WASHINGTON—Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, today called President Obama's executive order on embryonic stem cell research "a sad victory of politics over science and ethics." Under the order, for the first time in U.S. history, federal tax dollars will be used to encourage researchers to destroy live human embryos for stem cell research. Cardinal Rigali also cited a January 16 letter in...

Kansas City - St. Joseph Bishop Robert W. Finn issued the following statement today responding to President Barack Obama's Executive Order on Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Statement on the President’s Order for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Most Reverend Robert W. Finn Bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph President Barack Obama has kept another campaign promise today as he signed the executive order which will allow federal funds to be spent on destructive human embryonic stem cell research. I join my voice to that of other Catholic leaders, and other men and women of good will, in denouncing this newest step...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Removing-Barriers-to-Responsible-Scientific-Research-Involving-Human-Stem-Cells/ THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _________________________________________ For Immediate Release March 9, 2009 EXECUTIVE ORDER - - - - - - - REMOVING BARRIERS TO RESPONSIBLE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMAN STEM CELLS By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Policy. Research involving human embryonic stem cells and human non-embryonic stem cells has the potential to lead to better understanding and treatment of many disabling diseases and...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama may win applause from some in the scientific community for his expected decision on Monday to overturn President Bush's limits on embryonic stem cell research funding. But some scientists say the controversial research is no longer the hot prospect for patients. Bernadine Healy, the former head of the National institutes of Health and the American Red Cross says the remarkable advances of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) are beginning to subsume embryonic stem cells. She wrote in U.S News and World Report that IPSC and adult stem cell research successes have "diminished"...

So after several other pro-abortion decisions in his fledgling administration, today Obama decides to allow funding for research with new lines of embryonic stem cells. It is being reported by the likes of the Washington Post that BO feels he is "depoliticizing" science. (You see, when you take the liberal political position, you aren't being political, you're being purely rational/prescient/practical/what-have-you, in this case, scientific.) What it seems he actually is doing is "de-ethicizing" science since the policy revealed today seems to have no ethical restraints of any kind. BO is simply pursuing every avenue to help those afflicted with diseases...

Stem Cell Research Finally Unleashed! (Follow it via JDRF’s New Twitter) As a person with Type 1 diabetes, whose life is all wrapped up in helping others with this incurable illness, it’s hard to express the relief and yes — joy — that I feel knowing that researchers hands will finally be untied by Obama today to freely explore the enormous possibilities of stem cell research! Fortunately for me, another journalist living with Type 1 named Mike Littwin at the Denver Post has just done an excellent job explaining “our viewpoint” and the ramifications in a column titled “Years Late,...

Legal complexities may underlie the delay in fulfilling election pledge. Diana DeGette wants an executive order now.R. Edmonds/AP Photo Colorado congresswoman Diana DeGette had one message for President Barack Obama when she shook his hand on 17 February, moments after he signed the massive US economic stimulus bill into law. "I just looked at him and said: 'Mr President, just to reiterate my hope that you will sign an executive order reversing President Bush's ban on [human] embryonic stem-cell research'," says DeGette (Democrat). "He said: 'We're gonna do it soon.'" Those words, and others like them from Obama, are doing...

Adult Stem Cells, +2; Embryonic Stem Cells, -1 Feb 23, 2009 — Two more successes were chalked up for adult stem cell therapies recently. Science Daily said that sufferers from Crohn’s disease may have a new treatment option by getting injections of their own bone marrow stem cells. This “now constitutes a treatment option to cure an intestinal disease that sometimes does not successfully respond to drugs and requires highly complex surgery that does not provide a cure.” Those afflicted with type 2 diabetes also have hope, thanks to adult stem cells. Science Daily also reported that progenitor cells exist...

Medical Advancement: It's the supporters of embryonic stem cell research who have politicized science. The desperation of a family and the pressure to produce results may have produced a medical tragedy instead.In the 2006 election, actor Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's, made a commercial for Democrats in which he urged voters to support Senate candidates who supported federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. As we noted then and do again, ESCR was not the "most promising" avenue of stem cell research. And no, that's not because of a lack of federal funds, but rather with the difficulties...

February 19, 2009 - President Obama has swiftly reversed the policies of the Bush administration to protect early human life, and there is no reason to think he will stop there. First, he has reversed the "Mexico City Protocol", which means your tax dollars will not only fund abortions overseas but will allow powerful NGO's to bully Catholic and Islamic governments to legalize abortion and abortifactant contraception. Second, he has stopped the HHS regulations that require clinics and other health care facilities to document that they are protecting the job rights of those working there who refuse to cooperate...

Neural stem cells in culture: use them carefully.R. CASSIANI-INGONI/SPL A report claiming that unregulated transplants of human fetal neural stem cells led to tumours in a boy's brain and spinal cord is being hotly discussed by stem-cell researchers. Although the procedure took place well outside the scientific mainstream, it underscores the need for caution as clinical trials involving stem-cell transplantation move forward."This is the first documented case of tumours resulting from fetal-cell transplant," says Wise Young, a neurosurgeon at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey.The paper, appearing in PLoS Medicine, describes a boy who received injections of fetal neural stem...

WASHINGTON – U.S. President Barack Obama will soon issue an executive order lifting an eight-year ban embryonic stem cell research imposed by his predecessor, President George W. Bush, a senior adviser said on Sunday. "We're going to be doing something on that soon, I think. The president is considering that right now," Obama adviser David Axelrod said on "Fox News Sunday." In 2001, Bush limited federal funding for stem cell research only to human embryonic stem cell lines that already existed. It was a gesture to his conservative Christian supporters who regard embryonic stem cell research as destroying potential life,...

Federal regulators have green-lighted the first trial of an embryonic stem-cell treatment in humans. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the go-ahead for Geron Corporation to start a phase I safety trial of its therapy GRNOPC1 for spinal cord injuries, the Menlo Park, Calif.–based company announced today. It first sought permission for the trial four years ago and spent much of the last year trying to satisfy the FDA’s concerns about it. "This marks the beginning of what is potentially a new chapter in medical therapeutics—one that reaches beyond pills to a new level of healing: the restoration...

Stroke patients to be treated with tailor-made brain cells. Stem cells will be grafted into the brains of patients during the new trial.ALAMY UK researchers have been given the go-ahead for a clinical trial to assess the use of stem-cell transplants for stroke. Twelve people will take part in the preliminary safety study, the first time that brain-derived stem cells have been used to treat stroke patients.The trial, due to start later this year, will see different doses of cultured human neural stem cells grafted into the brains of patients who have had a stroke — often caused by a...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Over the weekend, incoming president Barack Obama talked about how he'll make Congress overturn President Bush's stem cell research policy. In his comments, Obama wrongly indicated embryonic stem cell research can cure Alzheimer's even though scientists say that's not the case. In his comments to CNN, he said that "on embryonic stem cell research ... there is a moral and ethical mechanism to ensure that people with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's can actually find potentially some hope out there." However, leading scientists say that embryonic stem cell research will likely never yield a cure for Alzheimer's....

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR., NCR Staff Published: Jan. 8, 2009 Fr. Richard John Neuhaus: (CNS file photo, 2005)Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, a leading voice of Catholic conservatism in America, and one of those rare theologians and spiritual leaders whose influence vastly exceeded the boundaries of their religious community, has died at 72.Neuhaus slipped away Jan. 8, shortly before 10 o’clock Eastern time. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. A priest of the New York archdiocese and...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In just a matter of weeks, Barack Obama may force Americans to spend millions for unproven embryonic stem cell research. Yet, scientists admit they are having significant problems overcoming one of the major hurdles that may prevent the cells from every helping human patients. While adult stem cells have helped patients with a wide range of dozens of diseases and conditions, embryonic stem cells have yet to help one patient and have had problems in animals. One major problem is that they tend to form cancerous cells or tumors after they are injected -- and scientists...

WASHINGTON — Thwarted by President Bush in their efforts to expand federal spending on embryonic stem cell research, Democrats are now debating whether to overturn federal restrictions through executive order or by legislation when they assume full control of the government this month. Both President-elect Barack Obama and Democratic Congressional leaders have made repealing Bush administration restrictions announced in 2001 a top priority. But they have yet to determine if Mr. Obama should quickly put his stamp on the issue by way of presidential directive, or if Congress should write a permanent policy into statute. The debate is not academic....

Genetically engineered rats should follow soon, providing new models of human disease. Genetically engineered rats: coming to a lab near you.Alamy Rat pluripotent stem cells - the essential ingredient for making genetically engineered versions of the animals - have finally been created after decades of effort in the field.Scientists have long been able to alter the DNA in mouse embryonic stem cells, routinely creating mice with missing, added or altered genes. But the same techniques have not worked in rats, whose larger size can make them better models for certain disorders in humans. Although some techniques do exist for genetically...