No stem-cell triumph: Embryos were destroyed

[modrepub]

By Marie McCullough
Inquirer Staff Writer

The California biotech company that grabbed headlines last week for sparing human embryos while creating precious stem cells in fact destroyed all 16 embryos used in the experiments.

Supplemental data submitted with the paper revealed that Lanza's team did not fully use the approach - it just extrapolated from less ambitious experiments.

But the lay media weren't the only ones who misunderstood. Nature, the prestigious international journal that published the paper, initially issued a news release that declared Lanza's team had made embryonic stem-cell colonies "while leaving the embryo intact." The journal has since issued two "clarifications" and published online the supplemental data showing the embryos were destroyed.

Link: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/15401735.htm

[xchrom]

1. shrugging -- embryos are just that -- embryos.

the information gleaned however still remains.

[DRoseDARs]

2. Ok class, raise your hands if you saw this coming... n/t

:hi:

[blondeatlast]

4. Here! nt

[TAPat]

3. Bet the stock skyrocketed... briefly -

Wonder who sold shortly thereafter?

It would be interesting to see the political affiliations of the major stockholders in that particular bio-tech company...

Hey, call me cynical!

[blondeatlast]

5. Okay, you're cynical...

and so am I. :hi:

[chat_noir]

6. recommended treatments for Republicans

[Ian David]

7. Advanced Cell Technology and Political Contributions

Political Contributions

The Company’s policy is to comply strictly with all applicable and valid laws and regulations relating to the making of corporate political contributions. No political contributions for any candidate for Federal office may be made for or on behalf of the Company by any Company employee.

Even in those jurisdictions where corporate contributions are legal, no employee is authorized to make any political contribution, including the purchase of tickets to raise political funds and the furnishing of any goods or service, for or on behalf of the Company unless it has been cleared in accordance with established corporate procedures and has been reviewed and approved by the Company’s outside counsel.

Monetary contributions so approved shall be made only by corporate check payable to the candidate or political committee in question.

The Company believes that it is inadvisable to become involved in the internal political affairs of a foreign country. Accordingly, neither the Company nor any of its employees may make a foreign political contribution for or on behalf of the Company.

The United States Foreign Corruption Practice Act of 1977 prohibits United States companies, their stockholders, directors, agents, officers and employees from the payment of or authorization of the giving of anything of value, directly or indirectly, to a foreign official:

* for the purpose of influencing any act or decision of such foreign official; or
* inducing such foreign official to use his influence to assist in obtaining business for or directing business to any person.

A “foreign official” is any person acting in an official capacity on behalf of a foreign government, agency, department or instrumentality, including a foreign national oil company. Also included under the term “foreign official” are foreign political parties and officials thereof or any candidate for foreign political office or a representative thereof.

Under the accounting standards provision of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a facilitating payment, if required to be made, must be properly recorded in the company’s accounts. Recording of such payments in any way which would conceal their true nature would be a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act accounting standards. No fictitious invoices, documents, etc. shall be involved in any such transaction. No accounting record or document shall be falsified in any manner which may be obscure or disguise the true nature of the transaction.

All employees of the Company shall refrain from any acts which are prohibited by this law.

The Company encourages its employees at all levels to exercise their rights of citizenship by voting, making personal political contributions if they wish to do so with their own funds, and by being otherwise politically active in support of candidates or parties of the employee’s own personal selection.

Such political activity by the Company’s employees must be engaged in strictly in their individual and private capacities as responsible citizens, and not on behalf of the Company. No Company employee may receive any direct or indirect reimbursement or offsetting refund of any nature with respect to political contributions made by them in any form.

More:
http://www.advancedcell.com/corporate-governance/advanced-cell-technology-code-of-business-conduct-and-ethics



Senior Executive Officers
http://www.advancedcell.com/senior-executive-officers/



Michael D. West, Ph.D.
Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Scientific Officer

Results:
No records found.
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William M. Caldwell, IV
Chief Executive Officer
(Donation by a possible relative to Barbara Boxer)
http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=Caldwell%2C+William&txtState=CA&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=&txt2006=Y&txt2004=Y&txt2002=Y&Order=N

Robert Lanza, M.D.
VP of Research and Scientific Development
No records found.
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James G. Stewart
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
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Jonathan F. Atzen
Senior Vice President and General Counsel
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Board of Directors
http://www.advancedcell.com/board-of-directors/


Alan C. Shapiro, Ph.D.
5 records found in 0.0645 seconds.
Search Criteria:
Donor name: Shapiro, Alan
Donor State: CA
Cycle(s) selected: 2006, 2004, 2002
Total for this search: $1,500

SHAPIRO, ALAN C MR
PACIFIC PALISADES,CA 90272
A. C. SHAPIRO/OWNER
6/15/2006
$300
National Republican Congressional Cmte

SHAPIRO, ALAN C MR
PACIFIC PALISADES,CA 90272
ALAN C. SHAPIRO/OWNER
6/16/2004
$300
National Republican Congressional Cmte

SHAPIRO, ALAN C MR
PACIFIC PALISADES,CA 90272
ALAN C. SHAPIRO/PROFESSOR
12/22/2003
$300
National Republican Congressional Cmte

SHAPIRO, ALAN C MR
PACIFIC PALISADES,CA 90272
ALAN C. SHAPIRO/PROFESSOR
11/29/2004
$300
National Republican Congressional Cmte

SHAPIRO, ALAN C MR
PACIFIC PALISADES,CA 90272
11/27/2002
$300
National Republican Congressional Cmte

[Kagemusha]

8. So what. Vatican said it was evil anyway

even before the detail about having actually destroyed THESE embryos came out.

[Igel]

9. I was surprised when fundies

didn't change their position when the research results were announced; then I read their critiques. They're consistent, and the claims were misrepresented. At first I accepted the claims. The results were more 'nuanced' (to use an atrocious word).

The reason for destroying the embryos (to stick with the public terminology, scientifically inaccurate but completely comprehensible) was simple. They exhaustively used their materials; that single cells *can* be removed with no harm is already amply attested.

However, it leads to a possible problem: They used some of the harvested cells to provide the environment for nuturing and coaxing the test-cells. This presumably isn't crucial; science hates the word 'presumably'. The fundies also rejected the claim with 'presumably'. But the researchers will have to show that the same results can be obtained using a different environment.

Many conservatives are fairly optimistic, however: They believe that it's only a matter of time before research actually accomplishing what this research was purported to do will be done.

[Kagemusha]

10. Some (like the Vatican) won't care.

Because it's like creating a brand new embryo and then destroying that, because the experimentation is wrong in the first place, blah blah blah...

[damntexdem]

11. The paper clearly stated that the embryos were destroyed.

What the research showed was a proof of concept that stem cells could be harvested while leaving the embryos intact.

[Irreverend IX]

12. Who gives a rat's ass?

Only the God-soaked idiots so obsessed with saving fetuses and embryos that they overlook the starving and suffering children who have already been born.