to Yvonne Perry for her compelling insight into "Blastocyst Research." Hopefully this will kick start essential research again which has stagnated since California allocated $US4 billon 3 years ago.


Perry begins Right to Recover with a straightforward description of just what a stem cell is and why the term “embryonic stem cell” is misleading to non-scientists. The cells with the greatest research potential are produced in the very earliest period after a human egg is fertilized. This tiny clump of cells is properly called a blastocyst and contains no developmental characteristics whatsoever. It is not an embryo and will never become one unless it is implanted in a woman’s uterus. Nevertheless, politicians and religious leaders have promoted the notion that scientists want to “kill embryos” to harvest stem cells. The federal funding ban and the public’s opposition, Perry contends, are largely due to this semantic confusion. Doctors and researchers “are mislabeling their own product when they refer to fertilized eggs (zygotes, morulas and blastocysts) as embryonic stem cells. The media is simply repeating this misnomer and fueling the flames of argument.”

GO HARD.... SCIENCE.