Word: stemming
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Thursday evening, when President Bush announces whether he will support federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, he will end months of private contemplation and public debate. The path to this decision has meandered through the esoteric world of cellular and genetic research and has focused unprecedented attention on the tantalizing, controversial (and, as yet, largely theoretical) possibilities for treatments, even cures, for our most dreaded diseases. For the President, this is not an easy call. Whatever decision he makes, Bush is likely to suffer harsh criticism...
...center of this storm is microscopic: A stem cell is, in essence, a blank cell, caught early in its development and capable, through manipulation, of becoming any type of cell scientists need. Those who champion research using embryonic stem cells believe new studies could provide critical help for patients suffering from diseases ranging from Alzheimer?s to diabetes to Parkinson?s. There is hope, as well, that stem cell research could be used to reverse nerve damage and spinal cord injuries...
...turn of phrase is likely to raise a few eyebrows in the scientific community. In the ongoing debate over stem cell research, "therapeutic" cloning has referred to the reproduction of embryos for the purpose of gathering stem cells. The proposal offered by Dr. Antinori, Panayiotis Zavos and Brigitte Boisselier, on the other hand, apparently involves taking an egg from a human mother, removing the nucleus and implanting the nucleus of a cell from the person who?s being cloned. (This is the same method used by the scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep...
...approving the wide-reaching ban on human cell cloning rather than the less restrictive bill, the House has effectively eliminated the most efficient and promising source of human stem cells. (The Weldon bill provides a10-year prison term and a $1 million fine as disincentives for would-be rogue scientists tempted to overlook...
...Where does that leave biomedical researchers? With very little to work with. Most abortion foes will argue that scientists should use adult stem cells to investigate potential cures. But it?s universally accepted that adult stem cells used for research generally don?t perform as well as embryonic stem cells would...