Michigan Legislature seeks human embryo research accountability

In 2008, Michigan voters approved a constitutional amendment (Proposal 2) allowing scientific research that destroys human embryos in order to obtain stem cells. Embryonic stem cell research was already legal in Michigan before the ballot measure, with state researchers using stem cells harvested from human embryos in other states or countries.

The proposal was presented as having many safeguards and that the research would be ethically conducted. But with Proposal 2's actual language providing for no public oversight or accountability of the research. Legislators in Lansing are seeking some answers, beginning first by asking any publicly-funded university that is conducting human embryonic stem cell research to report some basic information to the state. FULL STORY

University of Michigan researchers kill more embryos, create new embryonic stem cell lines

Researchers at the University of Michigan announced on April 4, 2011, they have killed more human embryos and created two new embryonic stem cell lines which have the genes of human embryos with genetic mutations. In 2008, Michigan voters were promised a plethora of cures with the passage of Proposal 2. The result is not what people expected, Michigan's Constitution was negatively altered to allow for the destruction of human embryos.

Researchers are now saying the cells they created by killing human embryos aren't "necessarily going to drive us toward discoveries of stem cell replacement therapies, but will give us information we've never had before with regards to how the diseases form and progress."

FULL STORY

Embryo Adoption: A Tale of Twins

For adopted twins Meredith and Mason Bonnema, fall of 2008 represents life and a future for both. Their adoptive parents were finalizing plans to welcome them to their new family.

Meredith and Mason were too small to remember that fall, because they were both smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. They spent the first few months of their adoption in deep freeze, waiting for their chance as embryos to be implanted in their adoptive mother, Kari. Transferred the following February, Meredith and Mason were born in October 2009, about one year after being adopted. While their parents were eagerly waiting for them to become part of their family, a completely different plan was being drawn up for other frozen embryos like Meredith and Mason. Voters in Michigan narrowly approved Proposal 2 in November 2008, allowing embryos to be legally destroyed for experimentation. FULL STORY

Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Putting Women at Risk
Where will all the eggs come from? Using embryonic stem cells from cloned human embryos to treat a single disease would require an impossible number of reproductive-aged women to go through the onerous and sometimes dangerous process of donating their eggs. PDF

Fact Sheet - Advances in Ethical Stem Cell Research
Proponents of human embryonic stem cell research often cite all of the potential treatments that may result from the research but fail to mention that human life is destroyed when removing these cells from a human embryo. Now researchers have pioneered a different kind of treatment that carries the same potential for treating disease... without destroying human lives. PDF

The Embryonic Stem Cell Research Money Trail
Some embryonic stem cell researchers are interested in more than curing patients. They're interested in obtaining patents. Learn how some embryonic stem cell researchers are fighting to make big profits off of embryonic stem cells. PDF

The Great Stem Cell Debate: Understanding the Basics
As the debate over stem cell research rages on, Right to Life of Michigan has put together a fact sheet discussing basic information about the issue and the difference between adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells. PDF

Stem Cell Research Report
The Stem Cell Research Report provides quick, useful information for those who are decision and policy makers in the area of stem cell research. The Report will keep you current on the research, studies and treatments worldwide. PDF

Banking on Cord Blood
The birth of a child is always special, but now with the donation of cord blood -- a baby's birth can also give life to others . . .

Sacrificed Without Consent: Taking From the Unborn, Ending Lives
Since stem cells are so versatile there is hope within the medical community that some day the cells can be reprogrammed to cure various diseases. This stem cell fact sheet contains information on the potential of stem cells, stem cell research, and the current legal situation regarding embryonic stem cell research. HTML | PDF

Stem Cell Research

Stem cell research is the most misunderstood life issue. Most people do not realize that stem cells can be obtained from numerous adult sources, umbilical cords and placentas -- without ending the life of a developing human being. Stem cells from human embryos are not needed for stem cell research to continue.

Organizations supporting embryonic stem cell research

Listing of organizations that have expressed support for human embryonic stem cell research. Research with embryonic stem cells necessitates the destruction of human embryos.