Spectacular Fraud Shakes Stem Cell Field
December 23rd, 2005 | Posted in » In the News...
The article “Spectacular Fraud Shakes Stem Cell Field” had a rather interesting quote in it, with which I wholly disagree.
“It’s a stain on the honor and integrity of the whole field,” said Dr. Robert Lanza, a cloning expert at the biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology.
While I admit, his intent in this quote was to point out that the South Korean scientist who perpetrated the fraud (Hwang Woo-suk) basically ended up sending a large number of researchers on a wild goose chase, the phrase “honor and integrity of the whole field” caught me as particularly inappropriate. How can embryonic stem cell research possibly be considered honorable or full of integrity? I honestly don’t understand how these researchers live with themselves, knowing that each day, the materials they work with (embryonic stem cells) were created at the expense of human life.
Don’t get me wrong… I’m not against stem cell research. I just wish our research efforts would be focused on the use of adult stem cells, which are becoming more and more readily obtainable from patients, and whose usage does not result in the destruction of human life.
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