BECAUSE IF ANY TENET DEFINES MODERN BIOLOGY...:

Man who helped start stem cell war may end it (Gina Kolata, November 22, 2007, NY Times)

If the stem cell wars are indeed nearly over in the United States, no one will savor the peace more than James Thomson.

Thomson's laboratory at the University of Wisconsin was one of two that in 1998 plucked stem cells from human embryos for the first time, destroying the embryos in the process and touching off a divisive national debate.

And on Tuesday, his laboratory was one of two that reported a new way to turn ordinary human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without ever using a human embryo.

The fact is, Thomson said in an interview, he had ethical concerns about embryonic research from the outset, even though he knew that such research offered insights into human development and the potential for powerful new treatments for disease.

"If human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough," he said. "I thought long and hard about whether I would do it."

He decided in the end to go ahead, reasoning that the work was important and that he was using embryos from fertility clinics that would have been destroyed otherwise.

...it's that moral qualms ought to be beaten down and life destroyed.

Posted by oj at November 22, 2007 8:04 AM
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