Word: nas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...While the NAS is in favor of a ban on all reproductive human cloning (i.e. creating a child), citing safety concerns, the prestigious group calls for work to continue in the field of embryonic cloning, where scientists create embryos in order to extract stem cells for use in medical research. Stem cells, of course, remain a political hot potato, simultaneously sparking high hopes of cures and treatments among researchers and advocates but horrifying many pro-life groups, which view embryos as human life and the extraction of stem cells as the destruction of life...
...NAS recommendations come just in time for Congress to take up the topic again; debate is raging once again between the House and the Bush administration, both of which favor a full ban, and the Senate, where there is ample support for therapeutic cloning...
...Will the NAS decision make a difference in congressional deliberations...
...body. Stem cell-based treatments hold out the hope of reversing progressive nervous disorders, such as Alzheimer’s or multiple sclerosis, and of replacing the weakened insulin-producing cells that cause diabetes. A September report by an expert panel of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) found that embryonic stem cell research could be used to treat conditions as varied as heart disease, severe burns and cancer, with significant benefits for more than 100 million Americans...
Although stem cells are also found in adults, the NAS panel (as well as an earlier report by the National Institutes of Health) found that stem cells derived from embryos are far more versatile. By generating embryonic cells that are genetically identical to that of the patient, therapeutic cloning offers a means of producing stem cells that will be accepted by the body without the need for dangerous immunosuppressive drugs. The NAS panel therefore described embryonic cloning as an “attractive option” for overcoming the problem of immune rejection and for turning research breakthroughs into actual...