http://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summarySat, 30 Sep 2006 18:53:45 +0000http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/sassblog.htmlsossissonBlogger115http://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/116207318156121523Sat, 28 Oct 2006 22:05:00 +00002006-10-28T18:08:02.183-04:00I meant to post this a few days ago, concurrent with the breaking news of Rush Limbaugh's incredibly insensitive remarks about Michael J. Fox. Life and work intervened, and when I looked up again it was the weekend. I'd missed Rush's numerous attempts to apologize, rationalize, editorialize, and revise his callous comments. (It pains me to send anyone to his site, but it does give us an idea of http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/10/how-low-can-rush-go_28.htmlTLShttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/116161785171285727Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:19:00 +00002006-10-23T11:37:32.166-04:00The New Jersey state assembly is moving toward passage of a bill that would provide $270 million for stem-cell research, including the controversial embryonic stem cells. The bill, already approved by a legislative panel, now needs approval by the full Assembly before moving to the state Senate. Not surprising, the state's anti-embryonic stem-cell force (I really object to these groups' http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/10/stem-cells-in-news.htmlTLShttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/116112498398985548Tue, 17 Oct 2006 22:05:00 +00002006-10-17T19:08:40.816-04:00Some of the latest news items on the status of embryonic stem-cell research: 1. More than a millon Americans who suffer from the debilitating neurological disorder Parkinson's disease are likely to be among the first to benefit from promising advances in embryonic stem cell research, unless political controversy keeps slowing down the process, scientists said Monday. Read the article 2. Burt http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/10/embryonic-stem-cells-in-news.htmlTLShttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/116112636004578890Tue, 17 Oct 2006 22:53:00 +00002006-10-17T19:06:00.046-04:00 This cartoon from 2005 is just as pertinent today, if not more so. Visit Daryl Cagle's Cartoon Index for a wealth of topical cartoons and talented cartoonists.http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/10/theres-life-and-then-theres-life_17.htmlTLShttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/116112201733315254Tue, 17 Oct 2006 21:52:00 +00002006-10-17T17:53:37.373-04:00It's no secret that George W. Bush is opposed to embryonic stem-cell research. It's also no stretch to assume that George W. Bush was not a whiz at science in school. So it now comes as no surprise that the scientist unceremoniously dumped last year from the President's Council on Bioethics has won two international science awards within the last three weeks. Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, "hailed as http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/10/on-who-left-in-civilized-world-could.htmlTLShttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/115954187993022746Fri, 29 Sep 2006 14:37:00 +00002006-09-29T10:58:10.453-04:00Most of the comments we've received to our posts here have been intelligent and thoughtful, coming from posters who are themselves intelligent and thoughtful. What self-respecting blog wouldn't cherish such contributions? This is not to say, though, that everyone with an opinion on the beginning of human life is equally deserving of the benefit of the doubt. It's a sad commentary on the state http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/09/having-it-both-ways-or-trying-hard-to.htmlJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/115912837812156363Sun, 24 Sep 2006 18:58:00 +00002006-09-24T16:06:20.703-04:00This, from yesterday's Washington Post:Researchers reported Thursday that they had cultivated a colony of human embryonic stem cells from an apparently dead embryo, a strategy some have suggested might be less controversial than conventional approaches that require the destruction of living embryos.Whoa. Is it just me or does this strike you as slightly strange? I'm not sure what part of it is http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/09/weird-tales-from-stem-cell-lab.htmlTLShttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/115851848722582657Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:33:00 +00002006-09-17T14:41:27.303-04:00Not to say that we take this blog's subject lightly, of course. But it doesn't hurt to stop sometimes, catch your breath, and laugh. Ruben Bolling's "Tom the Dancing Bug" cartoon is his weekly contribution to the effort to not take things too seriously. Back in July he came up with one (excerpted at the right; full-sized original here) particularly relevant to the content here on the Beginning http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/09/light-moment.htmlJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/115843940110390370Sat, 16 Sep 2006 20:21:00 +00002006-09-16T16:43:21.116-04:00In a column entitled "Better Than Sex: The growing practice of embryo eugenics," today's issue of Slate has this from William Saletan:What flaws are we screening for? That's the most uncomfortable question of all. Sometimes the flaw is a horrible disease. But increasingly, it's a milder disease, the absence of useful tissue, or just the wrong sex. If you think it's hard to explain where babies http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/09/more-on-embryo-culling.htmlTLShttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/115746768545436239Tue, 05 Sep 2006 13:53:00 +00002006-09-05T10:48:06.876-04:00The September 3rd Health section of the New York Times ran a long article on the growing trend of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or P.G.D. During the blastocyst stage of her development, two-year-old Chloe was preselected by her parents for implantation.By subjecting Chloe to a genetic test when she was an eight-cell embryo in a petri dish, Mr. Kingsbury and his wife, Colby, were able to http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/09/culling-embryos-more-ethical-than-stem.htmlTLShttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/115732091212078815Sun, 03 Sep 2006 21:26:00 +00002006-09-03T18:01:52.203-04:00Some recent news and/or opinions on embryonic stem-cell research and the beginning of human life: First, Dr. William B. Hurlbut, a member of the President's Council on Bioethics, talks to beliefnet.com about the "moral peril of embryonic stem-cell research" and some ideas on how to get around it. Here's an excerpt:Federal legislators recognize that a large number of the people that they http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/09/todays-roe-vs-wade.htmlTLShttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/115677080525921167Mon, 28 Aug 2006 13:01:00 +00002006-08-28T12:12:01.440-04:00In today's New York Times, this editorial points out that the recently announced new technique for obtaining stem cells without harming the embryo still faces opposition....religious conservatives have already denounced the technique, and the President’s Council on Bioethics, in a white paper evaluating alternative ways to produce stem cells, declared this approach “ethically unacceptable.”Why http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/08/is-there-no-limit-to-politicizing-stem.htmlTLShttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/115673581327876339Sun, 27 Aug 2006 23:21:00 +00002006-08-27T23:30:13.366-04:00Scientists apparently let their enthusiasm lead them astray when announcing a new method for harvesting embryonic stem cells without destroying the embryo. First let's take a look at the online journal, Nature, where all the hoopla began: A single cell can be teased from a human embryo and used to produce stem cells while leaving the embryo intact. The process, published online in Nature this http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/08/just-when-you-thought-it-safe-to-go.htmlTLShttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/115586242491622465Fri, 18 Aug 2006 00:43:00 +00002006-08-27T19:20:43.210-04:00The Cherry Hill, NJ, Courier Post ran this opinion piece on its Web site. Here's the beginning:Bush stuck by his personal beliefs when he vetoed a bill last month to expand publicly funded embryonic stem-cell research. Bush believes embryos are the beginnings of human life, and that it is immoral to destroy them. This is what happens in embryonic stem-cell research. Yet, every year, hundreds ofhttp://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/08/who-is-bush-representing.htmlTLShttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/13314373/posts/summary/115551515242982967Sun, 13 Aug 2006 23:55:00 +00002006-08-13T20:25:52.536-04:00Out on Saturday's AP wire service was this story about the Florida Governor's race and its impact on stem-cell research in the state. You gotta love the Web. I found this in the San Jose Mercury News. (Yes, they're reading about us in California.) It seems 3 out of 4 of Florida's top candidates for Governor support embryonic stem-cell research. Republican Charlie Crist, and Democrats Jim Davis http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/2006/08/will-stem-cells-decide-floridas-next.htmlTLS