Tag Archives: Topic: Embryonic Stem Cell Research

ABC News: An Oklahoma bill that would ban the sale of food containing aborted human fetuses has some people wondering: What food currently contains aborted human fetuses?

LifeNews.com: Turning a blind eye toward both good science and good ethics, the embryonic stem cell and cloning company, Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), has published a very preliminary online report regarding their first two patients injected with embryonic stem cell derivatives.

NYTimes.com: A treatment for eye diseases that is derived from human embryonic stem cells might have improved the vision of two patients, bolstering the beleaguered field, researchers reported Monday.

Prof Life Blogs: Today, on behalf of the adult stem researchers it represents, the Jubilee Campaign’sLaw of Life Project and their co-counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, filed their opening Appellants’ Brief asking the United States Court of Appeals to “reverse the district court’s judgment in favor of Defendants, reverse the grant of Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment and the denial of [Appellants'] Motion for Summary Judgment, and remand with directions to enter summary judgment for [Appellants].”

LifeNews.com: NIH Director Francis Collins has approved four more human embryonic stem cell lines as eligible for federal taxpayer funding. The latest approval brings the total to 146.

News from The Associated Press: The ministry stopped accepting applications for stem cell procedures until July and is implementing a yearlong campaign to halt unauthorized stem cell therapy trials.

BBC : For the first time, scientists have produced monkeys composed of cells taken from separate embryos.

LifeNews.com: In case you missed it, the appeal that was filed in the federal embryonic stem cell lawsuit regarding taxpayer funding, Sherley and Deisher et al. v. Sebelius et al., is moving forward.

TheStar.com: British scientists have made the first human embryonic stem cells of a high enough grade to use in patients and deposited them in a public stem-cell bank for development in human trials by drug companies and researchers by 2014.

LifeNews: Ian Wilmut, the scientist who achieved international notoriety for cloning the sheep Dolly, is now urging his fellow scientists and researchers to abandon embryonic stem cell research.

LifeNews.com: After making headlines nationwide with curious comments in an interview in which many observers say he indicated he believes human life begins at implantation, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has restated his pro-life views.

Breaking from groups that believe human life begins at the moment an egg is fertilized — also the position of the Catholic Church, of which he is a member — former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told ABC News he believes life begins at implantation.

It was Geron that started this whole mess.

The New American: Citing the uncertain economy and the scarcity of needed capital, the company that launched the first government funded embryonic stem-cell trials announced that it is halting further stem-cell research and will lay off nearly 40 percent of its staff. The California-based Geron Corp., which began the first FDA-approved stem-cell trials in 2010, said that it would shift its focus to cancer research.

News from The Associated Press: The company doing the first government-approved test of embryonic stem cell therapy is discontinuing further stem cell work, a move with stark implications for a field offering hope of future medicines for conditions with inadequate or no current treatments.

Life News: Pope Benedict XVI gave an excellent speech to attendees of a bioethics conference in Rome last week and one doesn’t have to be Catholic to appreciate his sentiment that researchers shouldn’t take one human life (human embryos) to potentially save the lives of patients.

News from The Associated Press: The Vatican has entered into an unusual partnership with a small U.S. biotech company to promote using adult stem cells for treating disease, rather than focusing research on embryonic stem cells.

LifeNews.com: Pepsi shareholders have filed a shareholder resolution with the Securities and Exchange Commission and PepsiCo demanding that the company has been contracting with a research firm that uses fetal cells from babies victimized by abortions to test and produce artificial flavor enhancers.

LifeNews.com: You may or may not have heard that recently a European Union court has ruled that the extraction of embryonic stem cells cannot be patented because it destroys a human embryo.

SMH.com.au: Serious and fatal diseases such as pancreatic cancer, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes may eventually be treated using stem cells from breast milk following a remarkable discovery at the University of Western Australia.

Scientists reported Wednesday that for the first time they used cloning techniques to coax human eggs to generate embryonic stem cells containing the genes of specific patients.

Catholic News Agency (CNA): The Notice of Appeal was filed on September 19 by Jubilee Campaign’s Law of Life Project and their co-counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

BBC News (includes video): Doctors at Moorfields Eye hospital in London have been given the go-ahead to carry out Europe’s first clinical trial using human embryonic stem cell.

ProLife Blogs: Today, on behalf of the adult stem researchers it represents, the Jubilee Campaign’s Law of Life Project and their co-counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, filed their Notice of Appeal asking the United States Court of Appeals to reinstate their case dismissed by United States District Court for the District of Columbia in its July 27 decision . . .

LifeNews.com: The Scientist has a great article called “Skipping Pluripotency.” What is pluripotency? Pluripotent is a term used to describe a cell that is undifferentiated. A pluripotent cell can become most or all of the cell types in the body.

LifeNews.com: he appeal was filed by the Jubilee Campaign, a Christian law firm, and their co-counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. The Obama administration, via the National Institute of Health’s regulations permitted the federal funding of “research in which” human embryos are “knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.” Sam Casey, pro-life attorney arguing the case, commented on the appeal, saying, “Each time grant-awarding officials and federally funded scientists support or engage in hESC research, living human embryos are ‘knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death,’ in violation of the federal law known as the Dickey-Wicker Amendment.

Christian Newswire: Today, on behalf of the adult stem researchers it represents, the Jubilee Campaign’s Law of Life Project and their co-counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, filed their Notice of Appeal asking the United States Court of Appeals to reinstate their case dismissed by United States District Court for the District of Columbia in its July 27 decision based upon the district court’s interpretation of the Court of Appeal’s April 29 ruling vacating the district court’s August 23, 2010 preliminary injunction of the National Institute of Health’s regulations that Obama administration promulgated to permit the federal funding of “research in which” human embryos are “knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.”

FRC: Family Research Council (FRC) today praised the passage of the “Weldon Patent Ban” as part of the “America Invents Act” (formerly called the Patent Reform Act) to prevent patenting of human embryos

LifeNews.com: On Wednesday night, the Missouri Senate Jobs, Economic Development and Local Government Committee voted “do pass” on two bills that pro-life advocates are concerned will lead to taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research.

O. Carter Snead at Public Discourse: Public officials—especially the President—are obligated to protect the intrinsic equal dignity of all human beings, regardless not only of sex and race, but also without regard to age, size, condition of dependency, vulnerability, or the esteem of others. Abortion and embryo-destructive research are profound and lethal violations of this principle of equality to which the law (and the President) must respond.

LifeNews.com: For those keeping track, late yesterday NIH Director Francis Collins approved four more human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines for the embryonic stem cell registry.

LifeNews.com: You may have missed it, given that such occurrences have sadly become all too common, but another state has wasted good taxpayer dollars, pouring more money on unethical and unsuccessful embryonic stem cell research and ignoring life-saving adult stem cell research. The State of Connecticut recently announced the award of $9.8 million in state taxpayer funds for twenty stem cell research grants.

American Medical News: he plaintiffs have not decided whether to appeal Lamberth’s dismissal but are considering all options, said Steve Aden, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund in Washington, part of the plaintiffs’ legal team. “In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

American Medical News: The plaintiffs have not decided whether to appeal Lamberth’s dismissal but are considering all options, said Steve Aden, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund in Washington, part of the plaintiffs’ legal team. “In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

CNS: “Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments and violate federal law,” Aden said in a July 27 statement. “The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision. “In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose,” he added.

OneNewsNow.com: “Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law,” he contends. “The district court’s injunction simply enforced that law, which makes sure Americans don’t pay any more precious taxpayer dollars for needless research made irrelevant by adult stem-cell and other research.”

Chemical & Engineering News: The litigation, however, is likely to continue. The plaintiffs plan to review all options for an appeal, according to their attorney, Steven H. Aden of the Alliance Defense Fund. “In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose,” Aden says.

The New American: James Sherley, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, who uses adult stem cells in his research, was set to file an appeal of the verdict, with the aid of the Alliance Defense Fund, which represented him and Theresa Deisher in the lawsuit. “Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law,” ADF senior counsel Steven Aden said after the verdict. “The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision.”

Daily Kos: Sherley and Deisher can appeal the ruling. The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative organization that assisted with the lawsuit, said in a statement that its attorneys and other lawyers involved in the case were “weighing all of their options for appeal.”

NCRegister.com subcaption: Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law,’ said Steven Aden, senior council at the Alliance Defense Fund, which supported the lawsuit. The group is reviewing its options for appeal.

Missouri Lawyers Media (subscription) (blog) – Tom Schoenberg, Scott Lauck – ‎16 hours ago‎ Their lawyer, Steven Aden of the Alliance Defense Fund, said his clients are weighing all of their options for an appeal. Missouri Cures, a nonprofit organization that helped pass a 2006 state constitutional amendment passage that protects the ability …

Christian Post: “Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law,” said ADF senior counsel Steven H. Aden. “The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision,” he added. “In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

International Business Times: “American should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and would violate federal law,” said ADF senior counsel Steven Aden. “The law is clear, and we intend to review all our options for appeal of this decision. “In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

World Net Daily: ADF said, “The judge explained that he believes his hands have been tied by an appellate court decision that reversed his August 2010 order to stop the funding in light of a federal law that prohibits it.” ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden said Americans “should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law.” “The district court’s injunction simply enforced that law, which makes sure Americans don’t pay any more precious taxpayer dollars for needless research made irrelevant by adult stem cell and other research,” he said. “The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision. In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

Christian Post: “Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law,” said ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden in a statement. “The district court’s injunction simply enforced that law, which makes sure Americans don’t pay any more precious taxpayer dollars for needless research made irrelevant by adult stem cell and other research. The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision. In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

Warren Richey at the Christian Science Monitor via the Alaska Dispatch: “Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law,” said Steven Aden, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund. “In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose,” Mr. Aden said in a statement.

Eryn Brown at the San Francisco Chronicle: Sherley and Deisher can appeal the ruling. The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative organization that assisted with the lawsuit, said in a statement that its attorneys and other lawyers involved in the case were “weighing all of their options for appeal.”

Carolyn Y. Johnson at The Boston Globe: “The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision,’’ said Steven H. Aden, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit alliance of Christian attorneys that was cocounsel in the lawsuit.

The Washington Post: ttorneys involved in the challenge, including Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel Steven Aden, said that they were weighing their options for appeal of the ruling.
“Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments and violate federal law,” he said. “In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

LaTimes.com: Sherley and Deisher can appeal the ruling. The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative organization that assisted with the lawsuit, said in a statement that its attorneys and other lawyers involved in the case were “weighing all of their options for appeal.”

WSJ.com: Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel Steven Aden, one of the lawyers for the scientists, suggested the legal fight wasn’t over. “We’re evaluating all of our options for appeal,” he said.

NPR: “The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision,” said a statement from Steven Aden of the Alliance Defense Fund. “In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.” | Hundreds of reports appear in connection with this ruling.

ScienceInsider: Steven Aden of the Alliance Defense Fund in Washington, D.C., one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said in a statement that they “are weighing all of their options for appeal.” The plaintiffs’ first recourse would be to go back to the appeals court, where the same three-member panel would probably hear the case, says Greely. If they lose again, which seems likely, the plaintiffs can appeal to the Supreme Court. “I think they will lose [in the Supreme Court], but it’s probably worth it for them to give it a shot,” says Greely.

DF said today it might appeal the dismissal, which was viewed as a White House victory.
“Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law,” said ADF senior counsel Steven Aden. “The district court’s injunction simply enforced that law, which makes sure Americans don’t pay any more precious taxpayer dollars for needless research made irrelevant by adult stem cell and other research. The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision. In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

LifeNews.com: The Alliance Defense Fund, responding to today’s ruling by Judge Lamberth saying he must follow the decision of a Federal appeals court that wanted the case thrown out, said its attorneys will join Samuel B. Casey of the Jubilee Campaign’s Law of Life Project and pro-life attorney Tom Hungar to consider filing the appeal. The pro-life legal team members are weighing all of their options for appeal in light of a federal judge’s ruling that the embryonic funding can continue despite it violating a 1996 law prohibiting the funding of research destroying human embryos.

Charisma: Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, together with Samuel B. Casey of the Jubilee Campaign’s Law of Life Project and Tom Hungar of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, are weighing all appeal options. “Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments and violate federal law,” said ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden. “The district court’s injunction simply enforced that law, which makes sure Americans don’t pay any more precious taxpayer dollars for needless research made irrelevant by adult stem cell and other research. The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision. In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

Nature News Blog: Today, Lamberth wrote: “While it may be true that by following the Court of Appeals’ conclusion as to the ambiguity of “research,” this Court has become a grudging partner in a bout of “linguistic jujitsu”, such is life for a [lower] court.” . . . Plaintiffs’ attorney Stephen Aden of the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance Defense Fund, portrayed Lamberth as having his “hands tied” by the court of appeals’ April decision. “Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law,” Aden said in a statement. “The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision.”

LifeNews.com: Thomas G. Hungar, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, which includes the Alliance Defense Fund and the Christian Medical Association, said in 2009 when the lawsuit was filed, “the language of the [Dickey-Wicker] statute is clear” that it “bans public funding for any research that leads to the destruction of human embryos.” “NIH’s attempt to avoid Congress’s command by funding everything but the act of ‘harvesting’ is pure sophistry. The guidelines will result in the destruction of human embryos and are unlawful, unethical, and unnecessary,” he told LifeNews.com at the time.

USATODAY.com: Reached by phone, Steve Aden of the Alliance Defense Fund, which supported the lawsuit by researcher James Sherley of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute, says, “we think the law is clear and intend to examine all our options to appeal.” ADF is a “network of attorneys brings a wealth of experience to the fight to defend religious freedom, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family,” according to its website.

Boston Globe: In a statement, attorneys who brought the lawsuit said they are considering next steps. “The law is clear, and we intend to review all of our options for appeal of this decision,” said Steven H. Aden, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit alliance of Christian attorneys and co-counsel in the lawsuit.

Reuters at Chicagotribune.com: Attorneys involved in the challenge, including Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel Steven Aden, said they were weighing their options for appeal of the ruling. “Americans should not be forced to pay for experiments that destroy human life, have produced no real-world treatments, and violate federal law,” he said. “In these tough economic times, it makes no sense for the federal government to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

Federal judge says federal funding of embryonic stem cell research will continue in light of higher court’s decision to reverse his decision

A federal judge has dismissed one of the lawsuits filed against President Barack Obama’s executive order forcing taxpayers to finance embryonic stem cell research involving the destruction of human life.

LifeNews.com: News reports indicate that the first two patients have been injected in their eyes with retinal cells made from human embryonic stem cells. The actual injection of the hESC-derived cells comes about a month after the trials’ sponsor, Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) announced that they had signed up the patients for the embryonic stem cell experiments.

Christian Newswire (6/24): Today, on behalf of the adult stem researchers it represents, the Jubilee Campaign’s Law of Life Project and their co-counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, following a second remand from the United States Court of Appeals, filed its “supplemental brief” asking the United States District Court to provide summary judgment on each of their clients’ claims based on the National Institute of Health’s clear violation of two separate laws: (1) the Dickey-Wicker Amendment that bars federal funding of any “research in which” human embryos are “knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death;” and, (2) the Administrative Procedure Act that prohibits a government agency, from patently ignoring or prejudging public comments submitted in opposition to unlawful agency action, like NIH has been and is doing in this case. [numerous hyperlinks available at the Christian Newswire site]

LifeSiteNews.com: U.S. scientists reported last week they have been able to develop potentially “self-healing” lasers that could be used in the human body for treating diseases such as cancer. The lasers, however, use human embryonic cells in a controversial experiment that has not yet been approved by the FDA.

VIS news – Holy See Press Office: At midday today in the Holy See Press Office a forthcoming international conference on the theme “Adult Stem Cells: Science and the Future of Man and Culture” was presented. The conference, organised by the Science and Faith Department of the Pontifical Council for Culture, is due to be held in the Vatican from 9 to 11 November.

Life News: Dozens of pro-life groups are calling on pro-life Americans to boycott PepsiCo because it has contracted with a company that uses fetal cells from babies victimized by abortions to test and produce artificial flavor enhancers.

LifeNews: TThomas G. Hungar, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, which includes the Alliance Defense Fund and the Christian Medical Association, said in 2009 when the lawsuit was filed, “the language of the [Dickey-Wicker] statute is clear” that it “bans public funding for any research that leads to the destruction of human embryos.” “NIH’s attempt to avoid Congress’s command by funding everything but the act of ‘harvesting’ is pure sophistry. The guidelines will result in the destruction of human embryos and are unlawful, unethical, and unnecessary,” he told LifeNews.com at the time. Sam Casey, General Counsel of Advocates International’s Law of Life Project, a public interest legal project involved in the case, pointed out . . .

LifeNews: Geron has announced that the second patient has been injected with embryonic stem cell derivatives. This spinal cord injury patient was injected Saturday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

LifeNews: A Missouri pro-life group is concerned taxpayers may be on the hook for funding human cloning or embryonic stem cell research and its wants state legislators to do something about it.

Russell Korobkin at the Volokh Conspiracy: The bottom line is that, while last week’s decision preserved the status quo of permitting federal funding for now, it probably did not resolve anything. The strong odds now are that Judge Lamberth will grant the plaintiffs summary judgment in the lawsuit, reiterating his interpretation of Dickey-Wicker Amendment, that the D.C. Circuit will stay the ruling pending appeal, and that all the parties will wait while the D.C. Circuit considers essentially the same issue again.

God Discussion: In August, 2010, President Obama’s lifting of the ban was challenged in federal court in a case argued by the Alliance Defense Fund. In Sherley v. Sebelius, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said the research likely violated the law against federal funding of embryo destruction.

Law360.com: The plaintiffs are represented by Samuel Casey of Advocates International, Steven Aden of Alliance Defense Fund and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP’s Thomas Hungar, Bradley Lingo and Ryan J. Watson.

Thomas G. Hungar, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, which includes the Alliance Defense Fund and the Christian Medical Association, said in 2009 when the lawsuit was filed, “the language of the [Dickey-Wicker] statute is clear” that it “bans public funding for any research that leads to the destruction of human embryos.” “NIH’s attempt to avoid Congress’s command by funding everything but the act of ‘harvesting’ is pure sophistry. The guidelines will result in the destruction of human embryos and are unlawful, unethical, and unnecessary,” he told LifeNews.com at the time.