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Thursday March 4, 2004
Harvard University to Give Human Embryonic Stem Cells Away for Free
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BOSTON, March 4, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The latest efforts of Harvard University researcher to undermine President Bush's attempt to restrict the use of embryonic humans for experiment has taken an odd turn. Last week, LifeSiteNews.com reported that the renowned university intended to establish a research institute to focus on the development of stem cell lines from human embryos. Now a group of researchers headed by Chad Cowan have announced that they have developed 17 new lines of stem cells from human embryos and will be giving them away to researchers for free.
The New England Journal of Medicine published an article praising the action titled, "New Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines: More is Better". John Gearhart, the celebrated expert on stem cells and prominent promoter of their use in research, complains that at the moment there are only 15 lines of stem cells cultured from human embryonic cells and that these government approved lines are not suitable for all research.
The decision to give them away at no charge is a direct challenge to the Bush administration's restriction of public funding to only those lines developed before August 9, 2001. Calling embryonic cells, "the starting material for the development of cell-based therapies," Gearhart says that one application for embryonic cells is as a replacement for mouse cells in the culturing process. They would be used as a "feeder layer" in the culturing of other stem cells.
It is often said as a justification for using embryos in research that "at least some good will be obtained from their lives" by using them to treat diseases. This justification, however, has not been borne out by the actual research being done involving the destruction of embryonic human for research far removed from actual therapeutic applications. Gearhart himself has admitted that embryonic cells would likely never be used for direct therapies.
Friday November 22, 2002, LifeSiteNews.com reported Gearhart saying, "I am not sure these (embryonic stem) cells are going to be used in therapies." He then went on to insist that embryonic cells ought to be available strictly for research purposes.
Previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/mar/04030201.html
New England Journal of Medicine article:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/NEJMp048045v1.pdf
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