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LINK: zenit.org/article-26117?l=english
When Stem Cell Research Gets Personal (Part 1)
Interview With Bioethicist on Umbilical Cord Cell Banking
By Kathleen Naab
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, JUNE 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The debate surrounding embryonic stem cell research is portrayed as an exercise in discerning politics from science.
But there are undoubtedly some personal issues involved. The stem cell debate gets personal when citizens’ tax dollars are used to fund the research, regardless of if the citizens are in agreement.
As the U.S. government follows President Barack Obama’s March 9 executive order to direct U.S. tax dollars to the funding of embryonic stem cell research, ZENIT spoke with Father Alfred Cioffi about stem cell research and the particular promise offered by these powerful cells found in umbilical cord blood.
Father Cioffi, a priest of the Archdiocese of Miami, is a research ethicist for the National Catholic Bioethics Center. He has done extensive study and work in bioethics and research, focusing his first doctoral thesis from Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University on “The Fetus as Medical Patient: Moral Dilemmas in Prenatal Diagnosis.” He earned a second doctorate in genetics from Purdue University, with a thesis on “The VWG Hypothesis: Predicting Distinct Chromatin Structures from the DNA Sequence.”
ZENIT: There is still a lot of public confusion about stem cell research and what it’s all about – oftentimes confusion amplified by false or misleading press reports. Could you explain the basics of the research?
When Stem Cell Research Gets Personal (Part 1)
Interview With Bioethicist on Umbilical Cord Cell Banking
By Kathleen Naab
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, JUNE 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The debate surrounding embryonic stem cell research is portrayed as an exercise in discerning politics from science.
But there are undoubtedly some personal issues involved. The stem cell debate gets personal when citizens’ tax dollars are used to fund the research, regardless of if the citizens are in agreement.
As the U.S. government follows President Barack Obama’s March 9 executive order to direct U.S. tax dollars to the funding of embryonic stem cell research, ZENIT spoke with Father Alfred Cioffi about stem cell research and the particular promise offered by these powerful cells found in umbilical cord blood.
Father Cioffi, a priest of the Archdiocese of Miami, is a research ethicist for the National Catholic Bioethics Center. He has done extensive study and work in bioethics and research, focusing his first doctoral thesis from Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University on “The Fetus as Medical Patient: Moral Dilemmas in Prenatal Diagnosis.” He earned a second doctorate in genetics from Purdue University, with a thesis on “The VWG Hypothesis: Predicting Distinct Chromatin Structures from the DNA Sequence.”
ZENIT: There is still a lot of public confusion about stem cell research and what it’s all about – oftentimes confusion amplified by false or misleading press reports. Could you explain the basics of the research?