Monday, January 21, 2008 | Reason : In the News | print version

Vatican slams California firm's cloning experiments

by Breitbart

Thanks to EJ Ashcraft for the link.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080118194741.q60bzty8&show_article=1

A leading Vatican official on Friday condemned a US company's announcement that it had created cloned human embryos from adult skin cells.

The medical breakthrough could ultimately lead to the development of cures for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, and other untreatable ailments.

The experiments carried out by Stemagen Corp., a private company based in La Jolla, California, are the "worst exploitation of the human being which thus becomes an object of research," said Elio Sgreccia, who heads the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Sgreccia stressed that the experiments had "so far not been successful" and were also "a product of the past" as other recent experiments with human cells had been carried out without destroying embryos.

Stemagen Corp. used a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) to create the embryos.

In their experiments, the researchers removed the nuclei of mature egg cells from healthy young women who had previously donated eggs for successful infertility treatments.

Scientists then inserted DNA from an adult male donor into the eggs. DNA used in the experiment was retrieved from cells called fibroblasts, which are obtained from skin biopsies.

Several of the reconstructed eggs continued to develop as normal embryos, and three of the embryos were shown in genetic tests to have the same DNA as their male fibroblast donors.

"This study demonstrates, for the first time, that SCNT can be utilized to generate cloned human blastocysts using differentiated adult donor nuclei remodeled and reprogrammed by human oocytes," the researchers wrote in the study, which appear Thursday in the online edition of the journal "Stem Cells."

They believe that some key technical factors contributed to their successful results, including the use of freshly donated oocytes from successful egg donors.

Researchers said the breakthrough could lead to the creation of patient-specific embryonic stem cells for the development of treatment for as yet uncurable illnesses.

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1. Comment #114037 by TrashcanMan79 on January 21, 2008 at 9:05 am

The experiments carried out by Stemagen Corp., a private company based in La Jolla, California, are the "worst exploitation of the human being which thus becomes an object of research," said Elio Sgreccia, who heads the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Omitted was Sgreccia's next statement: "And, trust me, we know a lot about exploitation of the human being!"

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2. Comment #114039 by Ian Bamlett on January 21, 2008 at 9:06 am

I want my body cloned. I want the clone to be genetically altered so it's anencephalic. Then just keep it 'alive' purely to serve my need for spare parts should I ever need them.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it Vatican.

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3. Comment #114051 by Spinoza on January 21, 2008 at 9:24 am

I don't get it...

Other Comments by Spinoza

4. Comment #114054 by PMartin on January 21, 2008 at 9:25 am

Hmm. How oxymoronic to see "leading" and "Vatican official" in the same sentence......

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5. Comment #114058 by ridelo on January 21, 2008 at 9:37 am

Washing my dandruff out of my hair is mass destruction in the Vatican's view or what? How many livable copies of myself have I flushed trough the drain! What loss for humanity!

Other Comments by ridelo

6. Comment #114059 by artificialhabitat on January 21, 2008 at 9:39 am

Oh, who listens to the Vatican any more?

Ah, yes, of course..... how silly of me

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7. Comment #114060 by Cartomancer on January 21, 2008 at 9:40 am

Maybe I should run a book on how long this current catholic obsession with stem cells will take to blow over. First cloned Pope by 2108? Any takers?

Other Comments by Cartomancer

8. Comment #114061 by Synchronium on January 21, 2008 at 9:44 am

I think they only protest because, going by their infallable logic, they can't decide whether those embryos have souls.

If the soul is apparently created upon conception, this just leaves the vatican with a headache.

Idgits.

Other Comments by Synchronium

9. Comment #114069 by liberalartist on January 21, 2008 at 10:07 am

they're just mad because they haven't been consulted about such issues since the middle ages ended.

Seriously, what international organization could claim to be more anti-life than the catholic church?! As long as people are not having inappropriate sex, then starvation, overpopulation, disease, misery are acceptable to them. They are abhorrent.

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10. Comment #114085 by quill on January 21, 2008 at 10:51 am

I couldn't help but notice the phrasing: "Worst exploitation of the human being, which thus becomes an object of research."

It almost sounds like his principle objection is not the cloning part, but that it's research.

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11. Comment #114098 by 42nd on January 21, 2008 at 11:23 am

I want to be cloned at least several times. The world needs more me. And I really don't see what is Vatican complaining about, since they abolished limbo, all those embryos are going straight to heaven anyway.

Most people object to stem cell research because they "feel" it's wrong (probably because of all those dystopian images from SF movies and books), and their apparently higher motives are usually just an afterthought. It's ironic, when you think about it, that they accuse us of being immoral while their reasoning is guided mostly by basic instincts.

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12. Comment #114124 by cowalker on January 21, 2008 at 12:00 pm

42nd said:

And I really don't see what is Vatican complaining about, since they abolished limbo, all those embryos are going straight to heaven anyway.

Just to be safe they could squeeze off a drop of sterile water into each petri dish and say "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." Bingo. Instant heaven for the blastocysts/embryos/fetuses when they perish.

Actually it would be lot more efficient at packing heaven than sending missionaries out.

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13. Comment #114145 by notsobad on January 21, 2008 at 12:49 pm

These people can't even take proper care for born children.

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14. Comment #114162 by Shadow Boxer on January 21, 2008 at 1:18 pm

After reading the adjacent article on exorcism, I can't help but wonder if they're afraid of losing some business. If doctors start curing these "possession" diseases, there won't be anyone left for them to exorcise.
They've long ago lost the simple diseases, what will they do when they start losing the really tough ones?

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15. Comment #114197 by dariusdeluded on January 21, 2008 at 2:12 pm

The Vatican sucks to high heaven!

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16. Comment #114234 by bliktor on January 21, 2008 at 3:42 pm

"worst exploitation of the human being which thus becomes an object of research,"

Really? Cloning is more of an exploitation than the forced labor camps of Nazi Germany? Oh wait, I forgot the pope was a Hitler youth. My bad.

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17. Comment #114236 by alexmzk on January 21, 2008 at 3:46 pm

harsh as it may seem: they're only whinging cos the embryos don't ever get old enough to be indoctrinated.

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18. Comment #114252 by Big City on January 21, 2008 at 4:11 pm

cowalker said:

Just to be safe they could squeeze off a drop of sterile water into each petri dish and say "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." Bingo.

Mark my words: In ten years, this will be standard practice.

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19. Comment #114260 by ksskidude on January 21, 2008 at 4:39 pm

This is fantastic news!!

This means that we are one step closer to finding cures and therapies that are effective!!

I live in MO and am a member of the MO Coalition For LifeSaving Cures www.missouricures.com

In 2006 we had to vote in MO whether or not SCNT should be allowed to continue. The Religious Right wanted to ban this process, make amyone who participated a felon, punishable up to 15 years in jail.
The vote only passed by 50k out of 4 million. needless to say, we are going to have to vote once again.
It astounds me at to what lengths these people will go to see the xtian agenda passed. I for one will not allow it, and will continue to do all I can to keep all forms of stem cell research legal.
SCNT will enable any sick patient to regenerate their own embryonic stem cells. This is why SCNT is so important; the cells are an exact gentic match, which means, no immune system rejection, which is huge.

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20. Comment #114266 by MelM on January 21, 2008 at 5:04 pm

I would expect nothing better from this misery cult.

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21. Comment #114298 by dragonfirematrix on January 21, 2008 at 8:17 pm

So the cloning experiments are the "worst exploitation of the human being"

The Pope and every other religious CEO, preacher, pastor, etc., should consider the exploitation upon humanity religion has committed over and over again in the name of religion's many imaginary gods.

Other Comments by dragonfirematrix

22. Comment #114307 by PJG on January 21, 2008 at 9:23 pm

Synchronium:
I think they only protest because, going by their infallible logic, they can't decide whether those embryos have souls.

If the soul is apparently created upon conception, this just leaves the Vatican with a headache.

When I heard about the cloning from skin cells, my first thought regarding the Catholics was "I wonder how they are going to get out of this one?"

Actually, it could be a win-win situation....

If they are they going to tell us that every cell in the body contains its own soul, it would open the door to a new genre of horror movies, "Bed-mites - soul eating monsters from Hell" and "Invasion of the anti-dandruff shampoos"

On the other hand, if the Vatican will admit that skin cells do not have souls, then stem-cell research gets a free pass.

At very, very worst, they wouldn't be able to suggest that someone donating their own skin cells to generate stem cells to cure their own illness would be destroying any souls.

Other Comments by PJG

23. Comment #114314 by Roland_F on January 21, 2008 at 11:13 pm

"worst exploitation of the human being which thus becomes an object of research," said Elio Sgreccia, who heads the Pontifical Academy for Life

Yes of course homo sapiens is special as they were 'created like us (God's)' during Genesis 1.24-26.
So Stemagen Corp is playing God – really bad just another competitor for Yahweh.
This reminds me about a satiric movie about modern art, called 'the pail and the Mona Lisa' where the artists ended up with the biggest art creation ever done: he underwent sex transformation, and as transsexual he was greater than God: Creator and at the same time creation in one person !

So Stemagen Corp created Stem cells without soul, just imagine the embryo would grow up to a complete human body without soul. No need to pray and be prayed for, nothing needs to be saved from damnation and hell . When these procedure for conception would spread over time ….. a nightmare as the catholic church is out of their lucrative business then.

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24. Comment #114334 by mmurray on January 22, 2008 at 1:39 am

First cloned Pope by 2108?

Surely it will be Dalai Lama first. That would save having to hunt out the reincarnation in the back blocks of Tibet which is getting harder with the Chinese there.

Michael

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25. Comment #114341 by irate_atheist on January 22, 2008 at 2:38 am

Ignorant half-wits. Not even worth ignoring.

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26. Comment #114362 by Mr Blue Sky on January 22, 2008 at 4:31 am

You would have thought that with a good spin cardinal in place that they would have claimed it as a miracle breakthrough made someone a saint and started talking about virgin births and stuff. Perhaps they will soon as there are not enough science gaps left to sustain their outdated views. They damaged me for a while and would now given the chance but thanks to sites like this we get good info as it happens. Brilliant!

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27. Comment #114453 by Nunnjosh on January 22, 2008 at 8:22 am

The catholic church enjoys the fact that Eve's behaviour condemned women to pain in childbirth forever. To think that they might be spared that pain in the future would give them no more reason to exist.

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28. Comment #114464 by PJG on January 22, 2008 at 8:51 am

The woman's role in the conception side of things is not at all unpleasant - it is the far end that is the nasty bit! Sadly, Nunnjosh, I don't think cloning using skin cells will remove the necessity of a womb for gestation and therefore (pain in) childbirth will stand for the foreseeable future!

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