Thursday, November 30, 2006
Spain Ready to Jump on Euthanasia Bandwagon
From The Boston Herald
GRANADA, Spain - Inmaculada Echevarria has spent much of her life watching muscular dystrophy ruin her body. She’s been in a hospital bed for 20 years, her movements are now reduced to wiggling her fingers and toes and she wants to die.
“For me, life stopped having meaning a long time ago. I want them to help me die because I have spent my whole life suffering,” said 51-year-old Echevarria, whose case has triggered debate in Spain on the rights of people with incurable diseases to seek help in dying.
Euthanasia is illegal in Spain and people who help someone else die can be punished with at least six months in prison. But Spain’s Socialist government wants to legalize it as part of a wave of liberal reforms that have largely transformed this traditionally Roman Catholic country.
Under Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain is one of only a half-dozen countries in the world that have legalized gay marriage. He has also made it easier for Spaniards to divorce, eased laws on stem cell research, stiffened laws on violence against women and ended direct government financing of the Catholic church.
GRANADA, Spain - Inmaculada Echevarria has spent much of her life watching muscular dystrophy ruin her body. She’s been in a hospital bed for 20 years, her movements are now reduced to wiggling her fingers and toes and she wants to die.
“For me, life stopped having meaning a long time ago. I want them to help me die because I have spent my whole life suffering,” said 51-year-old Echevarria, whose case has triggered debate in Spain on the rights of people with incurable diseases to seek help in dying.
Euthanasia is illegal in Spain and people who help someone else die can be punished with at least six months in prison. But Spain’s Socialist government wants to legalize it as part of a wave of liberal reforms that have largely transformed this traditionally Roman Catholic country.
Under Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain is one of only a half-dozen countries in the world that have legalized gay marriage. He has also made it easier for Spaniards to divorce, eased laws on stem cell research, stiffened laws on violence against women and ended direct government financing of the Catholic church.
Monday, November 27, 2006
ACT Backs Down
Despite their bluster earlier this month, Advanced Cell Technology has modified its claims in its now notorious Nature paper.
From LifeNews
Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A leading biotech firm that came under fire for claiming to have created a new technique to obtain embryonic stem cells without destroying human life has modified its claims. In a new paper submitted to the scientific journal Nature, Advanced Cell Technology confirmed previous LifeNews.com reports indicating the assertions were false.
In an addendum to the original report, ACT admitted that none of the 16 human embryos in the original experiments survived the attempt at creating a new technique.
ACT also clarified its own claims about it's research, now saying that it "might" be possible to obtain stem cells from a human embryo without killing it.
In the Thursday paper, ACT went on to say that "none of the biopsied [human] embryos" involved in the research survived.
Kudos to Steve Ertelt at LifeNews for standing his ground.
From LifeNews
Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A leading biotech firm that came under fire for claiming to have created a new technique to obtain embryonic stem cells without destroying human life has modified its claims. In a new paper submitted to the scientific journal Nature, Advanced Cell Technology confirmed previous LifeNews.com reports indicating the assertions were false.
In an addendum to the original report, ACT admitted that none of the 16 human embryos in the original experiments survived the attempt at creating a new technique.
ACT also clarified its own claims about it's research, now saying that it "might" be possible to obtain stem cells from a human embryo without killing it.
In the Thursday paper, ACT went on to say that "none of the biopsied [human] embryos" involved in the research survived.
Kudos to Steve Ertelt at LifeNews for standing his ground.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Biotech CEO threatens Critics
Two important critics of embryonic stem cell research have been threatened by a biotech firm recently lambasted in the Senate and the press for an embryonic bait and switch
From LifeNews
Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A leading biotech firm that engages in cloning and embryonic stem cell research has launched a scathing attack on LifeNews.com, the pro-life newswire service. The CEO of Advanced Cell Technologies sent LifeNews.com a heated letter late Wednesday threatening the news service if it didn't stop reporting the truth about its research
Steve Ertelt has done yeoman's work in covering the prolife stories we would never hear in the mainsteam media and this attempt to intimidate him is despicable. The biotech firm Advanced Cell Technology [based in my hometown of Worcester MA] has a long history of deception and ethical compromise and this attack is par for the course.
This is a company that moved their headquarters to California to take advantage of the state funding for stem cell research there while the bulk of the company stayed in Massachusetts. They touted their methods in Nature as not harming the embryo when in fact none of the embryos they used to produce the paper survived. And despite being chastised by pro-ESCR Senator Arlen Spector for misrepresenting their research before a Senate subcommittee, they still managed to raise millions in venture funds on the basis of the misleading press releases regarding their Nature paper. This article at bioethics.net gives all the details.
I emailed Wesley Smith who informed me that Micheal Fumento has received a threatening letter as well. Wesley stated that Mr Fumento gave him permission to disseminate the threatening letter and sent me a copy. It is a tour de force of doublespeak in it's defense of ACT's claims and the legal threat is clearly implied at the end. I won't reference the text unless Mr Fumento or Wesley post it first.
Big Biotech is throwing their weight around to smother dissent and free speech. Please let your voice be heard and speak out against companies like ACT that don't want you to know the truth about their research.
From LifeNews
Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A leading biotech firm that engages in cloning and embryonic stem cell research has launched a scathing attack on LifeNews.com, the pro-life newswire service. The CEO of Advanced Cell Technologies sent LifeNews.com a heated letter late Wednesday threatening the news service if it didn't stop reporting the truth about its research
Steve Ertelt has done yeoman's work in covering the prolife stories we would never hear in the mainsteam media and this attempt to intimidate him is despicable. The biotech firm Advanced Cell Technology [based in my hometown of Worcester MA] has a long history of deception and ethical compromise and this attack is par for the course.
This is a company that moved their headquarters to California to take advantage of the state funding for stem cell research there while the bulk of the company stayed in Massachusetts. They touted their methods in Nature as not harming the embryo when in fact none of the embryos they used to produce the paper survived. And despite being chastised by pro-ESCR Senator Arlen Spector for misrepresenting their research before a Senate subcommittee, they still managed to raise millions in venture funds on the basis of the misleading press releases regarding their Nature paper. This article at bioethics.net gives all the details.
I emailed Wesley Smith who informed me that Micheal Fumento has received a threatening letter as well. Wesley stated that Mr Fumento gave him permission to disseminate the threatening letter and sent me a copy. It is a tour de force of doublespeak in it's defense of ACT's claims and the legal threat is clearly implied at the end. I won't reference the text unless Mr Fumento or Wesley post it first.
Big Biotech is throwing their weight around to smother dissent and free speech. Please let your voice be heard and speak out against companies like ACT that don't want you to know the truth about their research.
Monday, November 06, 2006
UK OB-GYNs Jump On the Groningen Bandwagon
From The Independent
How cold-blooded is this quote?
"We would like the working party to think more radically about non-resuscitation, withdrawal of treatment decisions, the best interests test, and active euthanasia, as they are ways of widening the management options available to the sickest of newborns."
That was the opinion of the The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology in a submission to the medical regulatory body, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.
In this twisted moral thinking, it's being positioned as a way of reducing late term abortions:
Deliberate action to end infants' lives may also reduce the number of late abortions, since it would allow women the chance to decide whether their disabled child should live.
[snip]
John Harris, a member of the official Human Genetics Commission and professor of bioethics at Manchester University, welcomed the college's submission. "We can terminate for serious foetal abnormality up to term, but cannot kill a newborn," he told The Sunday Times. "What do people think has happened in the passage down the birth canal to make it OK to kill the foetus at one end of the birth canal but not the other?"
It's pretty clear that the Dutch model is now spreading to all of Europe. The Continent has become a dangerous place for the disabled.
How cold-blooded is this quote?
"We would like the working party to think more radically about non-resuscitation, withdrawal of treatment decisions, the best interests test, and active euthanasia, as they are ways of widening the management options available to the sickest of newborns."
That was the opinion of the The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology in a submission to the medical regulatory body, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.
In this twisted moral thinking, it's being positioned as a way of reducing late term abortions:
Deliberate action to end infants' lives may also reduce the number of late abortions, since it would allow women the chance to decide whether their disabled child should live.
[snip]
John Harris, a member of the official Human Genetics Commission and professor of bioethics at Manchester University, welcomed the college's submission. "We can terminate for serious foetal abnormality up to term, but cannot kill a newborn," he told The Sunday Times. "What do people think has happened in the passage down the birth canal to make it OK to kill the foetus at one end of the birth canal but not the other?"
It's pretty clear that the Dutch model is now spreading to all of Europe. The Continent has become a dangerous place for the disabled.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Wesley Smith on Michael J. Fox
From LifeNews
Michael J. Fox’s ads exemplify what is so wrong with the larger pro-cloning political campaign: Long on hype, steeped in deceit, preying on the fears of disease victims, exploitive of our national fixation with celebrities, and appealing strictly to the emotions so that we will "feel" rather than "think," the ads were a profound disservice those striving to grapple with the crucial ethical issues surrounding embryonic stem cell research and human cloning.
Michael J. Fox’s ads exemplify what is so wrong with the larger pro-cloning political campaign: Long on hype, steeped in deceit, preying on the fears of disease victims, exploitive of our national fixation with celebrities, and appealing strictly to the emotions so that we will "feel" rather than "think," the ads were a profound disservice those striving to grapple with the crucial ethical issues surrounding embryonic stem cell research and human cloning.