THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VIII, Issue # 174, September 8, 2006
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
"EMBRYO-SAFE" EXPERIMENT JUST ANOTHER STEM CELL FRAUD:
Recent Letter in Nature Boosts Company Stock Price,
But Was Simply Dishonest
By Michael Fumento
SCIENCE, ETHICS, & HUMAN HEALTH: EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH & POLITICAL PROPAGANDA -- ESC
RESEARCH REMAINS HEAVILY WITHIN THE REALM OF HYPE & FALSE HOPE -- FRAUDULENT CLAIMS ADVANCED, AS
REGARDS THE CAPACITY OF SCIENTISTS TO CREATE STEM CELLS WITHOUT HARMING HUMAN EMBRYOS --
DISSEMINATING PROPAGANDA IN AN EFFORT TO OBTAIN THE REMOVAL OF FEDERAL FUNDING RESTRICTIONS ON
EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH
FULL STORY:
The fierce public debate over killing human embryos to create lines of embryonic stem cells is over; tout fini; THE END.
It was buried with a stake thrust through its heart by a study published in the world’s most prestigious science magazine,
Nature. Trust the media:
“Stem Cells Created With No Harm to Human Embryos” (Washington Post)
“In New Method for Stem Cells, Viable Embryos” (New York Times)
“Embryos Spared in Stem Cell Creation” (USA Today)
“Stem Cell Advance Spares Embryos” (Los Angeles Times)
On second thought, don’t trust the media.
In fact, none of the 16 embryos involved in the study by medical director Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology
(ACT) survived. All were harmed; none were viable; none were spared. When a member of ACT’s research advisory
panel, Ronald Green, told the Washington Post “You can honestly say this cell line is from an embryo that was in
no way harmed or destroyed,” he couldn’t have been more dishonest.
For all the media mania, you’d never know the Lanza publication was just a 200-word letter that spent as much verbiage
on theory as on actually describing the experiment. As such, Nature had no business running it.
But, as I’ve written elsewhere, Nature has long boosted embryonic stem cell (ESC) technology generally and the
lifting of federal funding restrictions specifically, as has its American counterpart Science. Their eagerness to run
anything promoting this view recently led to Science being forced to withdraw not one, but two, “ESC miracle
breakthrough” articles.
Lanza’s team described their work in Nature as showing that a single cell pulled from the smallest human embryos
(8-10 cells) can be made to divide in the laboratory and create a full cell line or “colony.” Since fertility doctors often
remove a single cell from an embryo this age to screen for genetic defects before in vitro fertilization – though it’s still
unknown as to whether this will eventually harm the child – researchers could theoretically just use these “spares.”
But Lanza’s team didn’t just pluck one cell from each of the 16 embryos; they ripped them apart and used 4 - 7 cells.
The ACT researchers’ letter left the embryos’ fate ambiguous, but an accompanying figure showed a photo of a
biopsied embryo at a later stage of development – one Lanza’s embryos never reached. A longer Nature press
release accompanying the article explicitly stated that only one cell was removed, and the embryos survived. (It has
since been corrected, and Lanza’s letter will be also.) ACT’s press release declared repeatedly that the embryos
survived, with CEO William Caldwell IV celebrating “Our ability to create human embryonic cell lines and therapies
without harming the embryo . . . . ”
Lanza also clearly lied in an audio interview for Nature, saying “in this instance, there is no harm to the embryo
that we’re biopsying.” So did Caldwell, telling PBS NewsHour: “In this case, we do not destroy the embryo”
and therefore it was “a major scientific breakthrough.”
Lo! After steadily declining for six months, ACT stock suddenly shot up 500% and both Lanza and Caldwell, already quite
wealthy, became quite wealthier. Then, just two days after the Nature report, ACT announced it had received
commitments to raise about $13.5 million.
But along came busy-body Richard Doerflinger of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. In a detailed e-mail
(later posted online), he showed step-by-step that Lanza did nothing new, besides perhaps reaching new heights in
scientific dishonesty.
To their credit, many in the media have admitted ACT and Nature had taken them for a ride.
But ACT propagandist, er, uh, ethicist, Ronald Green leapt to the company’s defense. “The approach does not harm
embryos; the experiment did,” Green insisted. (Right. And “I didn’t kill the victim;” the shooter said, “the bullets did!”)
An utterly unrepentant Lanza tossed off the backlash criticism as merely indicative of how politicized stem cell research
has become. Now there’s something he knows about.
Lanza has always been more salesman than scientist, constantly inveighing against the federal funding restrictions that
restrict the growth of his bank account. Yet, the media treat him as an impartial source on all things stem cell. Welcome to
the world of ESC “science” – about 10% research and 90% hype.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Science, Ethics, & Human Health
Michael Fumento is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, specializing in science and health issues. Fumento is also an
associate of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a columnist syndicated by Scripps-Howard, and the author of numerous
books, including BioEvolution: How Biotechnology Is Changing the World.
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