Wesley Smith has Lots of Nerve

Wesley Smith has made a serious bid for the 2004 chutzpah award. in a new column he complains that proponents of embryonic stem cell research using cloned embryos are playing word games in how they describe cloned embryos. This coming in the context of a year's worth of conniving on the part of proponents of a ban on cloning for research to say they are not opposed to 'stem' cell research when what they mean is adult stem cell research and intentionally confusing reproductive cloning with cloning for research. Wesley--stones, glass houses, c'mon now! - Art Caplan

Patenting Genes and Stem Cells

Danish Council of Ethics released this report on patenting of genes from humans and of hES cells.

Wired News: Stem-Cell Method May Cheat Death

"Stem-Cell Method May Cheat Death" reports on the potential derivation of stem cells from a single cell removed from a morula, which we mentioned a week or two ago on this list. Note, though, that they think it will solve the problem of killing embryos, because the embryo it was removed from would persist. The philosophical conundrum is that, if you believe any totipotent cell is human life, when you remove that blastomere from the morula all you have really done is twinned the morula. To someone believing in the sanctity of embryonic life, it might not be enough that the parent morula is not destroyed. The blastomere itself can be considered life worthy of protection. There is a point at which the cells cease to be totipotent as the morula transforms into a blastocyst. If someone could culture stem cells from a blastomere taken from a morula/blastocyst that has ceased to be totipotent -- then we will have really solved the stem cell problem to everyone's satisfaction, I believe. I think the ultimate point is that the stem cell problem may go away soon, leaving us only with enhancement, abortion, and PVS to distract us from health care reform.

Why No Bioethics on the California Proposition 71 Governing Council?

Why doesn't California put a bioethicist on its Proposition 71 governing board dealing with the $3 billion to be allocated for stem cell research? University Chancellors and Presidents are being nominated up and down as schools' and institutes' top guns clamor to be public intellectuals on this big-ticket funding item, no doubt in part to ensure that their shop gets some of the money. The proposition guarantees seats on the board to some institutions (including the 5 UCal schools), but why in the world can't there be some slots dedicated to bioethics?

No matter what your position on stem cell research, there simply must be a dedicated stem cell ethics expert among the governors. If it weren't so serious a matter, one would have to laugh at the idea that these University and institute administrators are properly trained to think about how and whether to dispense the money and for which studies. It is a question several are beginning to ask anew, echoing concerns from those who opposed Prop 71 but themselves supported hES research. Bioethics in California has always been a developing phenomenon, although the Stanford center is arguably among the top programs in the nation. Hopefully at least some of the ballast for deliberations about which programs should be funded will be provided by people in stem cell bioethics in California. But that is a very, very short list of people.

Even more important, California should finally begin to build up some bioethics programs, particularly in the universities that plan to do significant new stem cell research. If the past is any predictor, that will not be easily accomplished in California, where bioethics has just never really taken a foothold in terms of university budgets and powerhouse faculties. There are plenty of good people in bioethics in California, but it is difficult to identify a group of major research centers in bioethics in the state, despite its preeminent place in biotechnology research. Proposition 71 should be the full employment act for California bioethics, to borrow Art Caplan's description of the role ethics money in the Human Genome Project had on bioethics in the 1990s. But if it is business as usual in the most populous state in the nation, bioethics may become an unfunded sport for university CEOs. That would not only hurt bioethics, it would hurt the people of California, who are clearly hoping for a careful, smart use of the $3 billion windfall for stem cells. For them, ethics has to stay in the mix in a serious way.

Nature: Embryonic Stem Cell Research 'Lite'

Nature reports a new technique for developing cultures of hES cells, which has several implications each of which would help scientists deal with what is sure to be a very difficult four years for stem cell research. The big news is not the primary finding, that morula-stage embryos can produce stem cells. The folks who brought us "W: The Sequel" could care less what kind of embryo is destroyed; whatever it is, they're against it. The big news is what morula-stage embryo-derived stem cells could mean for harvesting of hES cells without destroying embryos:

Researchers might also use the new method to grow stem cells from morula-stage embryos that have stalled in their development and are incapable of growing into babies, suggests stem-cell researcher Jose Cibelli of Michigan State University in East Lansing. "You could remove a big obstacle from the ethical standpoint," he says.

SF Chronicle: Proposition 71 Passes

11:32PM - San Francisco Chronicle is projecting a clear win for Proposition 71, which allots $3 billion for stem cell research including ESR. My debating partner Mel Gibson is apoplectic and all over California TV complaining. The Proposition 71 story is beginning to filter out nationwide but it seems to be the dominant web story in California, from among some 13 propositions on the ballot there.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research Legal Now in Spain

Incredibly, even Spain is allowing some forms of ESR. This shows just how hollow and illogical the ban that the President has imposed on federal funding and the anti-ESR arguments of the President's Council truly are. - Art Caplan

Indonesia Stem Cells

China Times reports that Indonesia will take a middle ground on hES research while continuing a ban.

Primate Cloning - Schatten Results from ASRM

Gerald Schatten's work in primate cloning has led to a number of primate pregnancies, and although there have not yet been births, Schatten and his amazing group at Pittsburgh are using a number of techniques aimed at both primate cloning and at harvesting - in the longer term - hES-like pluripotent cells. This is huge news in the stem cell world and points to some interesting vulnerabilities in oocytes - it is better to "squeeze" than to "suck out" the nucleus. More in NatureOnline.

Around the World News

It is a huge day for bioethics news.

Interesting non-U.S. perspective on the positioning of Bush and Kerry on embryonic stem cell research and abortion, finds that there is great confusion and deception in both campaigns.

Jakarta Post announces a national bioethics body for Indonesia.

They must love George in the U.K., where he has just attacked their stem cell policy, reports The Times London.

LifeNews reports that the Dutch law extending euthanasia to children is being attacked in several ways in public policy forums.

Kass Will Now Officially Say Anything

The Independent UK reports on Leon Kass' latest extraordinary statements. Kass is on the stump, although this time not so much for the President as against every nation that wants to do hES research using nuclear transfer. He is speaking on behalf of all the, um, yet to be created. "Britain is wrong. A woman's body should not be a laboratory for research or a factory for spare body parts. No child should be forced to say, 'My father or mother is an embryonic stem cell'." For what it is worth, there is no evidence that producing 5 day-old blastocyst-like organisms through nuclear transfer would make reproductive cloning any more likely to work. But the metaphor is great: little people alone and alienated, crying out "my mommy is a cell! my mommy is a cell!" The other members of the Presidential Bioethics Council must be so proud of this heroic effort.

A Paraplegic's View on Stem-cell Research

This month it has been a seller's market for bioethics "talks" on stem cell research. Every organization in the nation seems to be inviting ever bioethics scholar in the nation, and more than a few dozen ministers and lobbyists and politicians (including many who cannot spell 'pluripotent') to address group after group on hES and the election. On a weekend that Peter Singer (of Princeton) was protested at University of Vermont - giving the Dewey lectures - for discussing stem cells and disability, it seems important to note the perspective often adopted by several of the disability organizations and many with disabilities: stem cell research debates, and perhaps the research itself, can lead to odd and pernicious views of disability, it is argued. Kelly Hollowell offers one such view in the WorldNet.

Wisconsin Worries it Will Fall Behind in Stem Cell Research?

Gazing at the California initiative proposed in Proposition 71, the Wisconsin Journal Times speculates that Wisconsin may fall behind. Now, this would be a reasonable fear in most US states. But Wisconsin? As Alta Charo acknowledges, "UW-Madison has strong adult and embryonic stem cell programs for now because all the federally allowed embryonic cell lines are at the university..." Finally, someone comes close to admitting that Wisconsin benefits enormously from the policy presided over by its former governor, HHS head Tommy Thompson. It is arguably a huge advantage, giving enormous intellectual property protection to the corporation started by Wisconsin's alumni association to hold (and collect fees for licensing) patents on the discoveries of James Thompson and colleagues at Wisconsin, and to collect fees for the use of Wisconsin's "Bush-approved" cell lines. Those patents, by the way, cover a huge range of activities in embryo engineering and science - virtually ensuring Wisconsin a place at the table in any embryonic stem cell-based IP dispute. So it is a surprise that Charo notes that Wisconsin "should be, by far, the single state everybody in the world looks to for the first, best discoveries on both embryonic and adult stem cells. And we're not."

France on hES: Here Come the Cells

CordesNews reports that France is set to import hES cells under its new "law on bioethics", passed in July of this year. "Supernumerary frozen human embryos conceived in vitro and without a parental project" may be used to derive cells, create lines and in experiments utilizining the derived cells.

Update: Salk & Stem Cells

We previously noted the Salk hES ethics symposium. They've put up video, including "teachable" talks from Wolpe and Zoloth; those are available here.

Pew Poll Out Today on Stem Cell Opinion

Pretty sophisticated polling data about changes in public opinion about politics and stem cells was released from Pew - this will figure in the next Presidential debate for sure. This from A.Caplan.

MSNBC - Stem-cell research a pawn in election politics

Art Caplan's MSNBC.com editorial on stem cell research is easily the clearest defense of hES research during the election cycle, and has already caused a huge stir among Bush supporters and campaign staff.

FT.com: ReNeuron hES Stroke Therapy "Ready for Trial"

Financial Times' David Firn reports that an honest-to-goodness hES clinical trial is ready to start for the improvement of sensory motor abilities lost in stroke.

Advanced Cell to California

From Chris Mooney, an LA Times story today on the planned opening of anAdvanced Cell Techology facility in California. Lanza at ACT is right that lots of companies will be moving west, but one can be sure that there are those in the U.S. hES research community - those who weathered the last two ACT-created microscandals - who are wondering why ACT couldn't keep moving west until they get to Singapore...

Wilmut the Clinical Researcher

Ian Wilmut has applied to HFEA for a permit to investigate potential cell therapeutics for ALS, using human embryonic cells produced through cloning. The news announcements, even this one come from a short news conference so little is really known. Wilmut's presence in this area at this time could scarcely be more volatile for the US election-year debate about "who will get ahead" in hES research under US restrictions.

Boston Globe: Family Seeks $15,000 hES Miracle

Gareth Cook is one of the Blobe's most intrepid science reporters. His front page piece today goes after Ukrainian stem cell "therapies," following the Rossetti family through two rounds of treatment. It's not an impressive investigative piece but it makes us wonder whether U.S. stem cell researchers should be educating clinicians about stem cell fraud.