This primer on cloning examines the nature and purpose of human cloning in light of recent developments in stem cell technology. The paper points out that all cloning is reproductive and reflects on the immediate outcome of human cloning – a human embryo – while examining the terminology used by cloning advocates to obscure the facts.
In this paper, Dr. Maureen Condic of the University of Utah explains the derivation of human stem cells from cloned human embryos. Dr. Condic discuss the science and politics behind cloning and why this method is unlikely to ever be the preferred tool of regenerative medicine.
Originally published February 25, 2022 and updated July 7, 2022 to include companion Table 1 This is Issue 8 in CLI’s On Science series. To view this report as a PDF, see: Handbook of Nascent Human Beings: A Visual Aid for Understanding the Science and Experimentation To view Table 1 below as a […]
This is issue 6 in CLI’s On Science series. To view this report as a PDF, see: Closing the Slippery Slope from a 14-Day Rule to an N-day Rule Introduction A common point of contention in bioethics discourse is whether a metaphorical “slippery slope” exists for human experimentation that is allowed despite […]
This is Issue 17 in The American Reports Series. The paper may be viewed as a PDF here: Federal Bioethics Commissions and Bias Against the Unborn In August, the Trump administration’s new Human Fetal Tissue Research Ethics Advisory Board reviewed requests made to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for federally funded fetal tissue […]
At the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity annual summer conference “Bioethics in Real Life,” Dr. David Prentice and Dr. Tara Sander Lee presented a workshop entitled Designing Babies: Science, Ethics, and Policies of a Post-Genomic Era. Scientific advancements in the fields of genetics, molecular diagnosis, and genetic engineering were introduced so that participants […]
Sharon Quick, M.D., is retired from work as a pediatric anesthesiologist/critical care physician. She is currently Washington State Director for the American Academy of Medical Ethics and is working on a Master’s degree in Bioethics. She is a member of the American College of Pediatricians and the Christian Medical and Dental Associations. She received […]
To view this list as a PDF, see: Available from the Charlotte Lozier Institute Last updated January 21, 2020 Special Websites www.stemcellresearchfacts.org. This website includes new videos on therapies and cures using ethical sources of stem cells, blogs on current topics, and a search engine for ethical stem cell research trials. www.ObamacareAbortion.com. […]
Gives Patients New Chance at Life Pain and Drug Free A new study published in the journal Neurology found that adult stem cells were successful in treating and reversing neuromyelitis optica, a debilitating autoimmune disease similar to multiple sclerosis (MS). This is yet another medical breakthrough for adult stem cells, as opposed to embryonic stem cells, which […]
As the scientific community weighs the risks and rewards of CRISPR, a controversial gene-editing tool, scientists in New York City are moving forward with experiments changing DNA on human sperm. In response to these new germline (heritable) experiments and the broader conversation surrounding CRISPR, Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), the research and education arm of Susan B. […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 14, 2019 Contact: Nicole Stacy, nstacy@sbalist.org, 202-223-8073 Washington, D.C. – Yesterday 18 scientists representing seven countries published a letter calling for a “global moratorium on all clinical uses of human germline editing — that is, changing heritable DNA (in sperm, eggs or embryos) to make genetically modified children.” Charlotte Lozier […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 12, 2018 Contact: Nicole Stacy, nstacy@sbalist.org, 202-223-8073 New StemCellResearchFacts.org Video Shows that Adult Stem Cells and Other Ethical Alternatives are Delivering Powerful Results for Patients Now Washington, D.C. – A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee will hold a hearing on “Exploring Alternatives to Fetal Tissue Research” tomorrow, December 13 at […]
In Jurassic Park as with Frankenstein and similar films, scientists’ attempts at playing God have unforeseen and catastrophic consequences.
“Now I know how it feels to be God.” That line in this film, uttered by a raving Henry Frankenstein right after he brought his patched-together-from-cadavers man to life, sums up all the blasphemy, megalomania and sheer cruelty inherent…
“Am I really human? Do I have a soul?” Vital questions, these, because they are asked by a cloned man at the end of this new millennium film…
“I want to live! I don’t want to die!” These frantic and forlorn cries, made by a desperate escapee to his pitiless captors, embody the essence and the thesis of this film…
“Gerty, they’re not programs, they’re people.” That’s what you would say, too. That is, you would if you were stationed on a mining base on the Moon and the artificial intelligence robot – Gerty — that runs the base and monitors your every move needed to hear it…
Charlotte Lozier Institute’s mission is to explore and provide science and statistics that are useful in public conversations about the sanctity of every human life. As this website amply demonstrates, the range of issues that can benefit from this kind of analysis is already large and is steadily growing: it encompasses genetic engineering, abortion, cloning, […]
Dr. George Delgado is the medical director of Abortion Pill Reversal (APR) and of Culture of Life Family Health Care. Dr. Delgado published the first peer-reviewed article in the medical literature describing the reversal of mifepristone (RU 486) using progesterone. He then established Abortion Pill Reversal, a program that connects women who have changed their […]
On April 25, 2017, Charlotte Lozier Institute Vice President and Director of Research, Dr. David A. Prentice, Ph.D., was published in USA Today on the need for a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director. The backgrounder below provides summary main points and sources on the position of current NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins in support of human embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, and the creation of ethically-questionable human-animal chimeras.
One of the earliest attempts to square this circle of trying to conduct morally problematic research within ethical guidelines is the “14-day rule” for embryo research. The rule has allowed embryo research outside the womb for up to 14 days post-fertilization, after which time the embryo would be destroyed. Although the origins of the rule go back over 40 years, it has been much in the news lately as scientists have developed methods to considerably extend the life of embryos outside the womb.
Kevin T. FitzGerald, S.J., Ph.D., Ph.D., is the Dr. David Lauler Chair of Catholic Health Care Ethics in the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University. He is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Oncology at the Georgetown University Medical Center. He received a Ph.D. in molecular genetics, and a Ph.D. in bioethics, […]
Today the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) announced an array of new associate scholars from a variety of disciplines. CLI’s associate scholars research, write, and speak on a wide variety of life issues including abortion, women’s health, prenatal diagnosis and treatment for the unborn, perinatal hospice, abortion reporting policy, sex-selection abortion, stem cell research and medicine, and health care policy.
The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly is an invaluable resource not only for insights on ethical issues but news about key developments in medicine and technology. This summer NCBQ added a new author to its array of resources, a regular update on Science written by Charlotte Lozier Institute Vice President and Director of Research, David Prentice, Ph.D.
A recent blog posted on the science/technology website Gizmodo conducts an interesting thought experiment. The author goes back 10 years to the December, 2005, issue of Scientific American. In that issue was the “Scientific American 50” – a list of the 50 leading scientific trends for that year.
The author wanted to see what has happened, 10 years on, in realizing “the highly-touted breakthroughs of the era that would supposedly change everything.” The author writes that she chose 2005 “because 10 years seemed recent enough for continuity between scientific questions then and now but also long enough ago for actual progress. More importantly, I chose Scientific American because the magazine publishes sober assessments of science, often by scientists themselves.”
On May 19, 2015, Dr. David A. Prentice delivered the following testimony before the Institute of Medicine to address the ethical and social issues raised by proposed mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) techniques.
David A. Prentice is Vice President and Research Director for the Charlotte Lozier Institute. He is also Adjunct Professor of Molecular Genetics at the John Paul II Institute, The Catholic University of America and was a Founding Advisory Board Member for the Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center, a unique comprehensive stem cell center in Kansas […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), the education and research arm of the Susan B. Anthony List, is pleased to announce today that Dr. David Prentice will join the organization as its Vice President and Research Director. Dr. Prentice brings over three decades of experience in life sciences including stem cells, cloning, cell biology, genetics, biotechnology, bioethics, and life-related research and policymaking.
Diabetes has long been one of the main diseases for which human embryonic stem cell (embryo-destroying) research, or hESCR, was claimed to hold the greatest promise of curing.
But for well over a decade now, ethically contentious human embryonic stem cell research (hESCR) has notably failed to live up to all its hype, with promises of miracle cures within “five to 10 years” remaining unfulfilled.
That remains true today, despite all the renewed hype that accompanied recent reports that researchers had coaxed hESCs into becoming insulin-producing cells.
Eugene C. Tarne is a senior analyst with the Charlotte Lozier Institute. He is also the president of Tarne Communications Inc., a communications and issue advocacy company he founded in 1999. For more than 25 years, beginning in 1989, Mr. Tarne served as a communications and media relations consultant to the United States Conference of […]
Researchers using ethically uncontroversial induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have achieved what appears to be a major breakthrough in understanding the origin and development of Down syndrome, according to a new study recently published in Nature Communications.
In this paper, Dr. Maureen Condic examines scientific evidence for the point at which it is evident that human life begins.
This report looks at the continuing pattern of stem cells research funding and finds that grants continue to be given to projects that show the most promise – namely ethical stem cell research.
This paper continues the investigation of stem cell research funding in the United States by examining the funding patterns at the Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission. This investigation reveals that the Maryland Commission is keeping with the trend of investing more money in ethical stem cell research as opposed to embryonic as it is this route which is providing demonstrable results.
A European grassroots initiative with the bold objective of protecting human life even in its most vulnerable embryonic state has gained considerable support across the continent- collecting over 850,000 signatures from a wide array of nations. The “One of Us” initiative is a valiant effort that has been taken up by groups and individuals across […]
Great Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which oversees fertility treatments and embryo research in that nation, recently approved fertility procedures that would amount to the genetic engineering of children through cloning (nuclear transfer) technology and germ-line modification, resulting in a “three-parent embryo” that would have genetic material from two mothers and one father.
Testimony of David A. Prentice, Ph.D., February 7-8, 2013 The following is the written testimony of Dr. Prentice before a Joint Meeting of the Committee on Public Health and Welfare, Kansas Senate and the Committee on Health and Human Services, Kansas House.
A major New England biotech company recently announced that it would begin the process that it hopes will result in the first clinical trial using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This is hardly surprising, as the discovery, by Shinya Yamanaka, of the process to produce embryonic-like, fully pluripotent stem cells from ordinary somatic (body) cells has […]
This paper examines the funding pattern of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, an institution which characterizes itself as the “largest source of funding for stem cell research outside the NIH.” Tarne demonstrates that funding has moved from grants directed primarily towards embryonic stem cell research toward primarily ethical stem cells research – which has been the only stem cell research to date to result in positive treatments for illnesses.
The Nobel Prize for Medicine awarded to Japan’s Shinya Yamanaka last month is a thoroughly deserved recognition of his groundbreaking work in regenerative medicine, work that just five years ago forever changed the way stem cell research is conducted around the globe. It is also welcome recognition for a man who took seriously the ethical […]