Another one for Clone the Truth. This is getting so old...but I think this article takes the cake so far. Again from Missouri and the Kansas City Star. (You have got to read this one. The whole "blastocyst" thing is incredible.)
Anyone from Missouri? They are getting tired of hearing from me so you have got to write your media and let them know they are incorrect. Here is my letter:
Dear Ms. Wagar,
I am writing to inform you that your article titled, "Stem-cell court battle was just a preview" dates 1/21/06 as seen on Kansascity.com is very misleading.
You may not be aware that it is not only opponents of the stem cell research initiative in Missouri that "insist" that somatic cell nuclear transfer SCNT creates an embryo. Many in the scientific community also insist that SCNT does in fact create an embryo.
Please see the following tutorial from the Dept. of Molecular Biology at Princeton that clearly shows that SCNT creates an embryo.
http://www.molbio.princeton.edu/courses/mb427/2001/projects/09/transfertutorial.htm
Also, James Thomson, an embryonic stem cell researcher, in the following interview also insists that SCNT creates an embryo. Thomson states, "If you create an embryo by nuclear transfer, and you give it to somebody who didn’t know where it came from, there would be no test you could do on that embryo to say where it came from. It is what it is. It’s true that they have a much lower probability of giving rise to a child. … But by any reasonable definition, at least at some frequency, you’re creating an embryo. If you try to define it away, you’re being disingenuous." Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8303756/page/3/
Also you wrote in your article, "What is destroyed to get stem cells is a ball of 150 to 300 cells called a blastocyst. One witness testified that a blastocyst is smaller than the period at the end of this sentence."
A blastocyst IS an embryo. From Websters dictionary: "blastocyst: The mammalian embryo in the post-morula stage in which a fluid-filled cavity, enclosed primarily by trophoblast, contains an inner cell mass which becomes the embryonic disc." Source: http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/english/Bl/Blastocyst.html
Your article implies that it is only the Catholic Church that teaches that SCNT creates an embryo, when that is clearly not true.
It is important the the people of Missouri understand SCNT before they vote on this initiative. They need to understand that it is not just Catholics that "insist" that SCNT creates a cloned embryo. It is also many in the scientific community. I therefore ask that you print a correction.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Taylor
Even more confusing -- the constitutional amendment language on the ballot specifically bans cloning, but Mr Neaves of Stowers Institute specifically calls the process cloning. And then avers that it is not an embryo unless it is implanted in the uterus.
Either the reporter got it wrong, or Mr. Neaves is changing definitions they have created.
No doubt they want everyone confused. That way its easier to get their initiative passed. There were so many glaring errors in this piece, I didn't know where to begin. Maybe you can point that one out to the Kansas City Star.