Life Links 6/15/06

People from other countries come to the United States to choose the sex of their child.

"But one doctor who offers embryo selection for about $20,000 says he is serving the marketplace and helping Nature, not playing God."

HT: World


It seems some scientists have made progress in the hopes of converting adult stem cells into cells with embryonic stem cell like properties.

"Two studies published in Nature1,2 identify key proteins that endow embryonic stem cells with their coveted abilities to divide again and again, ad infinitum, and to generate all the different tissues in the body.

The papers do not provide a definitive recipe for the sought-after cocktail; either more proteins must be identified or those already known must be mixed in an unknown combination. But if found, this recipe could leapfrog the intense controversy and toil that is currently involved in extracting stem cells from a human embryo, which is destroyed in the process."

HT: Wesley Smith