free enterprise: privately funded company clones human embryo

From: Barbara Lamar (altamira@texas.net)
Date: Sun Nov 25 2001 - 09:12:22 MST


I haven't been following the list closely these past couple of weeks, so my
apologies if this is old news. It's the first I've heard of it, and it was
such good news I had to share it.

Barbara

================================

U.S. Company Says It Cloned Human Embryo for Cells
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. company said on Sunday it had cloned a human
embryo, in a breakthrough experiment aimed not at creating a human being but
at mining the embryo for stem cells used to treat disease.

The company, Advanced Cell Technology Inc., based in Worcester,
Massachusetts, said it had for the first time used cloning technology to
grow a tiny ball of cells that could then be used as a source of stem cells.
Stem cells are a kind of master cell that can grow into any kind of cell in
the body.

``This is indeed a milestone in therapeutic cloning,'' Mary Ann Liebert,
publisher of the online journal E-biomed, which carried the report, said in
a statement.

``These preliminary results, which add to the weight of evidence that human
cell reprogramming is possible, are very significant given the importance of
the growing field of regenerative medicine.''

Federal law prohibits the use of taxpayer money in the cloning of human
beings but Advanced Cell Technologies is a privately funded company and can
do as it pleases.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011125/ts/science_clone_dc_1.html



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