Politics
Wednesday September 24, 2003
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
Chinese Fusing Human Skin Cells With Rabbit Eggs to Produce Early Stage Embryos
SHANGHAI, China September 24, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The next step in cloning is being pursued in China. One of the standard secular objections to human cloning is that to make it commercially viable, it would require the extraction of an unlimited supply of human oocytes, (ova) from women. The extraction process is dangerous involving as it does the administration of artificial hormones to stimulate "hyper-ovulation".
Scientists have therefore been working to create clones from oocytes from non-human sources. In New Zealand, legislation has been proposed that would allow cloning and other forms of manipulation of embryos using artificially produced cells and molecules.
In Shanghai, Dr. Huizhen Sheng led a team of scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University who have reported fusing human skin cells with rabbit eggs to produce early stage embryos, which in turn yielded stem cells.
Newsday.Com reports that the Chinese scientists fused human skin cells with rabbit eggs from which they had removed the nuclei, which contains DNA. The DNA of the skin cell no longer directs that cell's life, but begins driving embryonic development. "The resulting embryos were clones of the human donors, although they were never intended to develop into babies."
Experimental therapies on Parkinson's patients with stem cell derived from human embryos have proved to be disastrous for the patients, producing crippling, incurable side effects that were described by the researchers as "horrific". It is not known what effect stem cells from such artificial sources as Dr. Sheng is developing, would have on patients.
Dr. John Shea, medical advisor for Campaign Life Coalition Canada warned, "Along with the scientifically established genetic abnormalities in cloned embryos and the tissues derived from them, we will now add whole new vistas of possible animal abnormalities as well as the prospect of infecting patients with unknown viruses."
See Newsday report
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/wire/sns-ap-china-stem-ce...
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- Firefighters' Lawsuit against City Over Forced Participation in Gay Pride Parade Ends in Mistrial
- Victory: Supreme Court Allows "Choose Life" License Plates in AZ
- Update: Obama Supporter Dr. Cafardi Resigns from Franciscan University Board
- Legislators Seek Abortion-on-Demand for Every State in Mexico
- Video Catches Planned Parenthood Covering Up Statutory Rape
- Kenyan Cardinal Blasts Attempt to Legalise Abortion
- Franciscan University Board Member Backs Obama, School Distances Itself
- Democratic Platform Promises, Republican Platform Rejects More Abortion Overseas
- San Francisco Catholic Charities Ends Relationship with the US' "Gayest Adoption Agency"
- US Government Cuts Off Supplies to Marie Stopes International
- Pope Commends Knights of Columbus for their Pro-Life Work
- The 16th International Week of Prayer and Fasting
- Billy Graham to Turn 90: Public Invited to Send Personal Stories, Birthday Wishes
- Catholic Magazine Calls For Defeat And Removal Of Prime Minister Harper
Most Read this Week
- Extreme Pro-Abortion Feminist Heather Mallick Scheduled to Speak at Catholic St. Mary's University
- Sarah Palin Speaks on Abortion, Contraception, Homosexuality
- Martin Sheen Stars in Ad Opposing Assisted Suicide in Washington State
- Abortion Patient of George Tiller Feared for Life: 'They're Liable to Kill Me'
- Bella Star Eduardo Saves Five Unborn Babies' Lives
- CBC Apologises for "Porn Star" Attack on Palin
- Russia: 64% of Pregnancies End in Abortion
- Catholic Magazine Calls For Defeat And Removal Of Prime Minister Harper
- Eduardo Verastegui Talks about Obama, Saving Babies Outside L.A. Abortion Clinic
- Swedish Man Awarded $24,170 Compensation after Filming Himself Having Sex with 14 Year-Old
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.