[published on July 22, 2006 in "The Flatland Oracles," my previous]
This posting at Wired.com (by Steven Edwards) is essential reading for those of us who want to jump into the stem cell debate. There is a lot of long information out there, it appears. Entitled "Congress' Top 10 Stem Cell Flubs," it identified 10 examples of wrong information that various members of Congress have cited in support of their various positions.
According to this article, it is not IN FACT the case that embryos are either used in research or thrown away, as both Senator Arlen Spector (R-Pennsylvania) and Senator Christopher Dodd (R-Connecticut) have stated. According to this article, these statements are misleading. [quote begins] "A 2002 study found at the time that 88 percent of the 400,000 embryos in frozen storage at fertility clinics across the country were on hold for families who might want to have another baby. Only 11,000 embryos were specifically donated to research." [quote ends; link in original]
Like the senators, I overstated the case in my recent posting---I assumed that MOST embryos are either going to be used for research or thrown out, and it turns out that only about 11,000 are actually allocated for research purposes. This information doesn't change my conclusions since the 11,000 donated embryos WILL be either used for research or thrown away. The others aren't in danger of being used for research anyway.
For those who want to get it right, here is a 'cheat sheet' published at Wired.Com that gives information about stem cells, what they are, how they are currently being used, and what the real issue really is.
[published on July 12, 2006 in "The Flatland Oracles," my previous blog]
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