Life Links 10/15/10

At the Live Action blog, Jennifer Rego has a post with pictures of what she describes as a "ten week old embryo" removed from a woman who had uterine cancer.


The Center for Genetics and Society blog has posted an updated translation of a paper originally published in German on how American bio-tech companies are attempting to skirt laws which prohibit the purchasing of human eggs for research cloning purposes.

My investigation revealed that researchers in California are taking innovative approaches to introducing the dimension of payment into egg procurement strategies, thereby undermining the spirit if not the letter of state law. One approach already being implemented is the “seamless integration” of a fertility clinic and biotech company and the use of oocytes for which payments have been made for reproductive purposes. Another approach, still apparently in the planning phase, involves the commercial outsourcing of egg brokerage and “egg sharing.”

Feministing's Jessica Valenti was recently able to bring home her daughter Layla, who was born at just 29 weeks and spent 56 days in the NICU.

Investor's Business Daily has an editorial on Geron's clinical trial using cells made from embryonic stem cells to treat patients with spinal cord injuries.

Geron's announcement puts the lie to the claim ESCR was stopped dead in its tracks by President George W. Bush's announcement that federal funding of ESCR would continue only for stem cell lines then in existence, not from new stem cell lines derived from human embryos destroyed specifically for that purpose.

I'd also point out the Geron is a U.S. company which used private money for its research and it was approved for the first clinical trial in the world as far as I know. This kind of puts to bed two pro-ESCR talking points. 1.) Tax dollars are needed to move this research forward as quickly as possible and 2.) The U.S. was failing behind other nations.