Word: embryos
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...immediate issue are "stem cells," cells often taken from the very earliest embryo. Because they are potentially capable of developing into any kind of cell, they may help cure an array of intractable diseases. Pro-life forces find the procedure ethically impermissible, because removing the cells kills the embryo. Moreover, they argue, harvesting this biological treasure will encourage the manufacture of human embryos for precisely this utilitarian purpose...
...technique wasn't required to create ANDi, the Oregon team had already learned to clone the animals, which in the future will prove important since having identical copies of different monkey strains will be crucial for rigorous scientific experiments. That milestone--the first cloning of a primate by embryo splitting--was achieved by Schatten's group last year...
...Indeed, even conventional gene therapy, which doesn't change the basic germline, has become controversial since the death of Jesse Gelsinger in a gene-therapy trial at the University of Pennsylvania last year. Besides, scientists have much simpler ways to stave off at least some genetic diseases. Parents whose embryos have the gene for Tay-Sachs disease, for example, can test for that defect and never bring the embryo to term...
...cloning technique used with Bessie--the only cow in the experiment to carry an embryo into late pregnancy--is a variation of the procedure that created Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal. A needle is jabbed through an egg's protective layer and used to remove the egg's nucleus, containing most of a cell's genetic material. A second needle is used to inject a whole cell under the egg's outer layer. To complete the process, an electrical current fuses the new cell to the egg. The embryo starts to divide until, within days...
AFTER THE FALL If you're thinking of trying in-vitro fertilization to get pregnant, you might consider waiting a few months. A report from Israel suggests that the likelihood of an egg's being fertilized, and the quality of the embryo that results, are lowest in autumn. No explanation yet, but things pick up by winter and peak when signs of life are popping up everywhere: in spring...