Scientists Create New Human Embryonic Stem Cell

Homework Help writes "U.S. scientists were successful in creating a new human embryonic stem cell. From source, "U.S. researchers said on Monday they have created a new human embryonic stem cell by fusing an embryonic stem cell to an ordinary skin cell. They hope their method could someday provide a way to create tailor-made medical treatments without having to start from scratch using cloning technology. That would mean generating the valuable cells without using a human egg, and without creating a human embryo, which some people, including President George W. Bush, find objectionable. ""

Comments

Re:Can someone please explain to me...

[anaesthetica]

Executive orders do not have (and never have had) the force of law. Congress can override them simply by passing a law contradicting the order, and the Supreme Court can strike orders down (and has in the past). The only type of orders that do have force of law are those made in pursuance of certain Acts of Congress which give the President discretionary powers.

Re:s/creating/destroying

[learn fast]

Regarding the debate, Bush is losing.

Most Americans now think the ban should be dropped and the government should "fund research that would use newly created stem cells obtained from human embryos".

Re:s/creating/destroying

[KaushalParekh]

Don't be so sure. The patent rights for a gene sequence go to whoever first discovers it. You can have a plant growing in your garden for years and then be sued because it contains a patented gene sequence. Ludicrous? Yes.

You can not patent the "sequence" of a gene. The whole genome sequence is freely available to the public.

In simple terms what you could patent is the discovery that "this piece of sequence does that" or how it functions in nature and how can it be utilized.

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome /elsi/patents.shtml