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Michigan Bishops Launch Massive Statewide Stem Cell Education Program - Video Online 12 minute DVD and other material being sent to over 500,000 Catholic homes and nearly 800 parishes LANSING, October 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an effort to communicate the Catholic Church's teaching on human life as it relates to adult and embryonic stem cell research, the Michigan Catholic Conference on Monday announced the state's seven diocesan bishops have launched a monumental internal education program that includes over 500,000 Catholic homes and nearly 800 parishes. As part of the internal education program, which has the theme "The Science of...

Adult stem cells continue to outperform embryonic stem cells in medical applications. Three examples: Stem cells grown from amniotic fluid have been successful in developing heart valves potentially helping more than 1 million babies worldwide with heart defects. The cells are obtained by amniocentesis (placing a needle into fluid around a growing baby, not damaging that baby at all). This research is from Switzerland. The University of Minnesota developed an important type of lung cell using umbilical cord blood cells. The lung cells are responsible for secreting a substance that allows the air sacs in the lungs to stay open,...

The embryonic stem cell research debate is remarkable because neither side—pro-life nor pro-abortion—seems to fully understand the moral logic of its views.  Presumably, people who are pro-life hold their views for a reason and are not just emoting or idealogues. The same could be said of pro-choicers. I’ve long suspected that’s not always the case, though. The recent debate about embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) confirms my doubts. Dr. Anthony Atala, head of Wake Forest's regenerative medicine institute, is photographed in his research lab at Piedmont Triad Research Park in Winston-Salem, NC, Friday, Jan. 5, 2007. Scientists reported Sunday they...

Scientists reported Sunday they had found a plentiful source of stem cells in the fluid that cushions babies in the womb and produced a variety of tissue types from these cells sidestepping the controversy over destroying embryos for research. Researchers at Wake Forest University and Harvard University reported the stem cells they drew from amniotic fluid donated by pregnant women hold much the same promise as embryonic stem cells. They reported they were able to extract the stem cells without harm to mother or fetus and turn their discovery into several different tissue cell types, including brain, liver and bone....

CHICAGO Nov 15, 2006 (AP)-Scientists for the first time have grown human heart valves using stem cells from the fluid that cushions babies in the womb offering a revolutionary approach that may be used to repair defective hearts in the future.The idea is to create these new valves in the lab while the pregnancy progresses and have them rady to implant in a baby with heart defects after it is born.

Joined by 31 cosponsors, a Republican state senator from Duluth introduced a bill Thursday designed to foster stem cell research in Georgia and to avoid the controversy such efforts arouse. The bill by Sen. David Shafer would encourage research with stem cells from postnatal tissue – umbilical cords, the placenta and amniotic fluid. "Stem cell research efforts have been hampered by the controversy over embryonic stem cells," Shafer said. "But stem cells are not found only in embryos. Umbilical cord blood is rich in stem cells which can be used for research without destroying any embryos." "Stem cell research using...

Boston doctors used cells taken from a pregnant lamb's amniotic fluid to grow a new trachea, then implanted the organ into the ailing fetus, an experiment that may pave the way for similar treatment in humans. Using cells from amniotic fluid to repair or replace human organs may bypass some of the political and ethical obstacles doctors encounter with fetal cells, said Children's Hospital Boston pediatric surgeon Dario Fauza, who led the experiments. "You avoid all the ethical dilemmas of the embryonic stem cell," Fauza said. "The cells are already there" in the mother's amniotic fluid. "We are just harvesting...