January 4th, 2005
Missouri Therapeutic Cloning Ban?
Anti-research groups and politicians in Missouri will continue to try and force through a ban on therapeutic cloning (or SCNT) this year. "A statewide ban on SCNT would limit Missouri's ability to recruit and retain biomedical scientists, and not just those who want to work with embryonic stem cells. ... The damage would extend far beyond regenerative medicine to every field of biomedical research ... The more people know about this research procedure and understand its potential to relieve human suffering, the more supportive they become." Therapeutic cloning is an essential technology for the production of stem cell lines used to explore the biochemical mechanisms of disease - the best first step towards a cure.