" The House voted 6-5 Tuesday to send the measure to the House floor. The bill's author, Rep. George Faught of Muskogee, says it makes it illegal to perform destructive research on a human embryo and to buy or sell an embryo knowing it will be subjected to destructive research. ... But Rep. Doug Cox of Grove, a physician, says embryonic stem cell research is not conducted in Oklahoma. "

" But I could use a miraculous cure for Parkinson’s, too, as could millions of others around the world who have the disease or will develop it. And the main force preventing such a miracle is the Roman Catholic Church. The most likely source of miraculous cures for all sorts of diseases, with Parkinson’s foremost among them, is stem cell research. "

" Sadly, great people will abandon promising projects. Great people will leave basic research and move to more predictable pastures. And some great young people will decide not to go into research careers at all. The precipitous shift in the legal and regulatory environment for human embryonic stem-cell work will have adverse implications for years to come. "

news coverage of the new Colorado personhood campaign

Moral/ethical arguments against embryo research are not a function of scientific ignorance. "To end one human life for the sake of another, even when the former is microscopically small and the latter is someone we know and love, is to play a dangerous game of utilitarianism. We shouldn't end lives to save lives. This practice violates one of the most basic ethical principles: The ends do not justify the means."

"The issues raised by the use of assisted reproductive technologies take on an increased level of complexity in Ireland, which has a constitutional amendment acknowledging the “right to life of the unborn.” Ratified in 1983, the eighth amendment was passed to prevent the legalization of abortion. Its vague language, however, does not define the meaning of the word unborn. This ambiguity has led to controversy surrounding assisted reproduction in Ireland."

"In Beyond Bioethics, Fukuyama and Furger go beyond social critique and focus on the details of human biotech governance. The study broadly follows the approach used by two previous landmark documents: the 1984 Warnock Report that motivated the establishment of the United Kingdom's Human Fertility and Embryological Authority in 1991, and the 1993 Baird Report that informed Canada's 2004 Assisted Human Reproduction Act."

a rare examination from the pro-life camp of the moral implications of embryos that fail to implant

"cloning" applied broadly, to stem cell research using blastocysts

"A legislative committee sought this morning to understand from various experts the controversial topics of stem cell research and cloning. Close to 100 people attended, including legislators, proponents, opponents and students."

"The Vatican is organizing a bioethics conference on the origin and development of the human embryo. ... The conference is a response to current debates about embryonic stem cells, cloning, genetic manipulation, and assisted fertility treatments."

"a handful of states with laws on their books from the 1970’s and early 1980’s, written in fearful reaction to Roe v. Wade... In Louisiana, the “embryo statutes”... [give] 2-4 day old [blastocysts] ... the same rights and interests as children."

"A Maryland lawyer has filed a lawsuit representing... an unborn embryo [blastocyst, actually], against Robert Klein, chairman of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the state-run $3 billion stem cell research funding agency."

"At least eight submissions of written evidence have come from medical professionals who have not disclosed their membership of Christian groups opposed to abortion on faith grounds."

"The upshot is that scientists who receive federal funding -- and most good scientists do -- cannot use any part of it, even indirectly, to study the embryos that IVF creates so as to learn how to better assess their viability."