GAITHERSBURG, MD — Parthenogenesis, a method of cloning in which female eggs (oocytes) are tricked into believing they are fertilized and change into embryos and begin to grow has been successfully attempted in humans. Dr. John Shea, medical advisor to Campaign Life Coalition, says that while parthenogenesis is the method of reproduction for certain animal species it has never before been seen with humans. However, pro-cloning scientists are attempting to suggest this development will lessen the ethical controversy since they claim the human embryos created could not survive till birth.
“Using unfertilized human oocytes as a source for stem cell derivation is less controversial than using fertilized embryos; it avoids the ethical concerns surrounding human embryonic stem cell research,” said the study published in the current issue of the journal Stem Cells (2003; 21: 152-161). However Dr. Shea explained that the suggestion of their rationale is “irrelevant to the moral argument.” He said, “Am embryo is an embryo is an embryo. They are asserting that these asexually created human embryos, since they apparently are so disabled they cannot survive till birth, are not human beings. In truth, however, human embryos are already human beings, no matter how small, how young or disabled.”
The scientists, mostly from Stemron Corporation, Inc. in Gaithersburg, claim to have used chemical stimulation to trigger the human oocyte to transform into an embryo which survived until the blastocyst stage at which stage scientists are able to extract stem cells.
See the full study from the journal Stem Cells: Multilineage Potential of Homozygous Stem Cells Derived from Metaphase II Oocytes
(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)
