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On November 8, Mississippians will vote on Initiative 26, an amendment to their state's constitution declares that life begins at the moment of conception. If enacted, the measure will effectively outlaw all abortion, IVF, embryonic stem cell research, and many forms of birth control. The driving force behind this and other such initiatives is an extreme fringe ideology known as the "Personhood USA" movement, and one of the loudest voices in that movement is Rebecca Kiessling. Here's hoping your rage levels have been kept at a manageable "middling" today; they're about to skyrocket. More »
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Europe's highest court ruled today that it's not legal for companies to patent any sort of research method that requires the destruction of human embryos. Christian groups are super psyched about this because God says cellbabies are exactly the same as grown up humans with faces and feelings. Scientists are upset because they say that this will drive research away from Europe. People who will end up dying of diseases that could have been cured using methods discovered through stem cell research could not be reached for comment. More »
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Pope Benedict XVI doesn't think people respect embryos enough, and said so during a recent vespers service. He also lamented how many kids are subjected to poverty, abandonment, and other ills. Surely more unwanted kids will fix this problem! More »
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A new procedure that combines DNA from one man and two women may help produce embryos free of genetic disease. Some people are concerned about the technique, however — maybe because it resembles the scariest X-Files episode ever. [Sun] More »
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A California woman who underwent fertility treatments has given birth to octuplets, but a new test may make the implantation of multiple embryos unnecessary, as doctors can now check the viability of eggs before fertilization. More »
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• Did John Edward's acknowledgment of his born-out-of-wedlock daughter put the final nail in his political coffin? Elizabeth says sort of, but it's OK: More »
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• 79-year-old Susie Mann was diagnosed with terminal intestinal cancer. Instead of giving up, Mann has decided to live out her "bucket list," and go hang-gliding, skydiving, swimming with the dolphins, and hiking the Grand Canyon on a donkey. • More »
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In a repeal of Bush-era limitations, federal funding can now be used on any existing embryonic stem cell line, as long as the initial embryo was created for IVF and freely given by a well-informed donor. [Washington Post] More »
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What do you do with 2,000 abandoned embryos? Dr. Robert Anderson's answer to this question highlights how the simple combination of sperm and egg has become complicated in the age of reproductive technology. More »
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Just like Margaret noted yesterday, William Saletan writes in Slate about the anti-abortion movement's use of Nadya Suleman's notoriety to try to change Georgia's laws to define fertilized eggs as human beings. More »
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In an apparent reaction to the Nadya Suleman case, Georgia politicians have introduced a bill that would limit the number of embryos implanted in a woman, and prevent the freezing additional embryos. More »
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A California woman who underwent fertility treatments has given birth to octuplets, but a new test may make the implantation of multiple embryos unnecessary, as doctors can now check the viability of eggs before fertilization. More »
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Hot on the heels of NYC socialite Alex Kuczynski's surrogacy overshare in the New York Times Magazine comes news that the majority of women who have undergone in vitro fertilization do not want to share their extra eggs. According to the Times, "53 percent did not want to donate their embryos to other couples, mostly because they did not want someone else bringing up their children, or did not want their own children to worry about encountering an unknown sibling someday." More »
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Most infertility patients support using leftover embryos for stem cell research and are in favor of selling the embryos to other couples, according to a recent survey of 1,350 infertility patients at a university fertility center in Illinois. It was estimated in 2002 that nearly 400,000 embryos are in storage at U.S. clinics as a result of extra embryos being produced during procedures. As to whether couples should be allowed to sell leftover embryos (a practice deemed unethical by the by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists), 56% of the 588 respondents who stated a definitive opinion answered yes. [Science Daily] More »
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