An Honest Scientist

James Thomson, the man who discovered human embryonic stem cells, is a developmental biologist and veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Thomson does advocate loosening of President Bush's limits on federal funding for ESCR; however, he certainly does not believe in lying about what ESCR is, what it might eventually be capable of, and the state of the science today. If you think that I have been prattling on without a reasonable understanding of this research, you might find this MSNBC interview with Dr. Thomson interesting. It's a long one, but a very interesting read, and he is very truthful. At one point, the interviewer tried to get him to say that cloning does not produce a human being.

Q: The people who use nuclear transfer generally say that the technique is optimized for producing the stem cells rather than making babies. They would not want to equate this with the process that produces embryos that were fit for implantation, and they’d argue that they’re using the reproductive process differently …

A: See, you’re trying to define it away, and it doesn’t work. If you create an embryo by nuclear transfer, and you give it to somebody who didn’t know where it came from, there would be no test you could do on that embryo to say where it came from. It is what it is.

It’s true that they have a much lower probability of giving rise to a child. … But by any reasonable definition, at least at some frequency, you’re creating an embryo. If you try to define it away, you’re being disingenuous.

And that's the problem with the MSM. They are either ignorant or disingenuous when it comes to these subjects. Dr. Thomson lays it on the line.