http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/10/21/brain.stem.cells.ap/index.html
This is a story from CNN about an experiment on the use of fetal (not embrionic) stell cells to treat a rare brain disorder. I couldn’t help wonder about the following -
“Stem Cells Inc., the Palo Alto, California biotechnology company developing the Batten disease treatment, said it receives its fetal tissue from a nonprofit California foundation that also collects tissue from miscarriages and other surgical processes. Stem Cells chief executive Martin McGlynn declined to name the foundation.” (emphasis added)
Now whatever you think about stem cell research, the origin of these cells is surely relevant to public discourse on this subject. Am I missing something, or are abortions not a possible source of fetal cells? If that’s true, isn’t the question of whether these cells came from aborted fetuses important to the public debate? So why didn’t CNN ask that question? It looks on the surface as if the question about the name of the foundation that supplied the cells is targeted at that issue, but why be so oblique about it? Can’t they ask Stem Cells Inc. whether these cells were abtained from aborted fetuses? To me this just looks like bad journalism.