Is Sex-Selective IVF Harmless?
Aussie boy: "Hey Ma, where are we going on vacation this year?"Aussie mom: "We are doing something very special. We are going to circumvent the laws of our country and we are going to travel all the way to Thailand, stay in a fancy hotel for a week, and buy you a little sister!"Aussie boy: "Good onya, Ma!"If you are an Aussie couple dying to have a girl or boy, forget about the ban on sex-selective IVF and let Global Health Travel of Australia set it all up for you! Airfare, luxury accommodations and the child of your choice.No joke. Continue reading at Creative Minority Report >> (Source: Mary Meets Dolly)
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - May 8, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: IVF Source Type: blogs
BioTalk, Episode 4: Biotechnology and the Church
A very interesting discussion with Chelsea on the Church and biotechnology and how the Church is far more "forward" than the rest of society where we conclude that "It is not time for the Church to catch up to us. It is time for us to catch up with the Church." (Source: Mary Meets Dolly)
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - May 6, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Science and Religion Source Type: blogs
Transhumanism Makes it Off, Off Broadway
Themes of how we will relate to each other when we live in Ray Kurzweil's singularity and are no longer oragnic, just disembodied consciousnesses uploaded to the digital world, have made it to Broadway. Well off, off Broadway at least. Broadway World reports on "Love Machine":
What do a small town girl flirting with a satellite, a robot giving a lecture about transhumanism, and a man uploading his consciousness into the digital ether all have in common? Love. Love Machine is created to reflect the current trend of the way humans have come to rely on technology. Below, BroadwayWorld has a first look at the piece,...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - May 3, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Transhumanism Source Type: blogs
Toddler Gets Windpipe Grown From Her Own Stem Cells
An adorable two year-old has a new lease on life thanks to pioneering doctors, a charitable Catholic hospital and her own stem cells. Little Hannah Warren was born without a trachea, the passageway that leads to the lungs. Although a tube was inserted from her esophagus to her lungs to help her breath, doctors told her parents that she would likely die.Hannah is now recovering from a trachea transplant. The trachea was made from a plastic scaffold and stem cells taken from her bone marrow. Continue reading at LifeNews >> (Source: Mary Meets Dolly)
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - May 1, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Stem cells, Adult Source Type: blogs
Little Everyday Good Things
From the theoretical horrors of "In vitro eugenics," to the real horrors of Kermit Gosnell's abortuary and the bombings at the Boston Marathon, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by the evil in the world. To fight this despair, I have been bringing to mind all of the good things that are in my life. This morning I saw this on Facebook from the Generation Life page:Being wary of quote attributions on Facebook, I looked into these words of the Holy Father and found that the phrase (from Romans 12:21) was conveyed through a telegram from Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, on behalf of Pope Francis, to Cardinal Sean OMalley, A...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 30, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Source Type: blogs
Study Finds Adoption Hope for Happiness After IVF
This study maybe an important finding for both women with "unwanted" pregnancies and infertile couples a like. Adoption does bring happiness. (Source: Mary Meets Dolly)
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 29, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: IVF Source Type: blogs
Brain Cells Direct From Bone Marrow Stem Cells
Sometimes in science the best discoveries are those that are unexpected. Researchers in California were trying to get bone marrow stem cells to grow by introducing an antibodies to the cells. Instead the cells began to form neural cells. U.S. News & World Report has the story:
Scientists have discovered an antibody that can turn stem cells from a patient's bone marrow directly into brain cells, a potential breakthrough in the treatment of neurological diseases and injuries.Richard Lerner, of the Scripps Research Institute in California, says that when a specific antibody is injected into stem cells from bone marrowwh...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 23, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Stem cells, Adult Source Type: blogs
The Church Is Not Backward, But Forward
It is as inevitable as the passing of time. Once there is a new pope, the world begins to wonder when the Catholic Church is going to leave its "medieval thinking" behind and join the "modern" age. It is the 21st century after all, and the Church needs to stop being so "backward."I am a cradle Catholic, and, when I was young, I subconsciously believed that the Church was "behind the times" and "out of touch."As I began my career and worked in cutting-edge biotech laboratories, there was always a nagging question: How can my Church, so rooted in the past, have something rele...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 22, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Science and Religion Source Type: blogs
Reactions to Uterus Transplant Pregnancy
Part of being a blogger is learning that people, even ones on your side, will misread, misunderstand, and misrepresent what you are saying. Being human, many of us only read headlines, or skim through a piece missing the major points, or infer things that simply are not implied. Knowing this, I try not to let reactions to my posts get under my skin.For some reason the reactions to yesterday's news about the pregnancy of the woman who underwent a uterus transplant really affected me. To recap, a woman born without a uterus was transplanted with a uterus from a deceased woman. She then underwent IVF and is now confirmed to b...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 17, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Reproductive Technologies Source Type: blogs
Woman With Uterus Transplant Confirmed Pregnant
Doctors have announced that the woman that received a womb transplant is now pregnant. From RedOrbit:The Turkish woman who, two years ago, became the first person in the world to have a successful womb transplant from a deceased donor is pregnant, various media outlets are reporting.Twenty-two-year-old Derya Sert, who was born without a womb, had been receiving in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments since the successful transplant, which took place in August 2011 at Akdeniz University Hospital in Turkeys southern province of Antalya, the AFP news agency reported on Friday.According to Reuters, the hospital released a st...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 16, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Reproductive Technologies Source Type: blogs
Vatican Holds Second Adult Stem Cell Research Conference
This week the Vatican is hosting another adult stem cell conference bringing together some of the top scientists in the field. The conference, the second held by the Vatican, is called "Regenerative Medicine A Fundamental Shift in Science & Culture." It is a collaboration between the Pontifical Council for Culture, NeoStem, an adult stem cell company, STOQ International, a non-profit that encourages dialogue between Church and culture, and The Stem for Life Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to spreading the good news about adult stem cells.According to Dr. Robin Smith, CEO of NeoStem and President of the ...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 12, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Stem cells, Adult Source Type: blogs
"In vitro eugenics" straight from Huxley's Brave New World
I read somewhere that while both George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World contained dystopian futures, Huxley's world, where humans are made in "hatcheries" and the people were kept compliant, not by the threat of Big Brother, but by the numbing of their senses with the pleasure-inducing drug "soma," was a more plausible scenario.After reading "In vitro eugenics" by Dr. Robert Sparrow in the Journal of Medical Ethics, I have to agree. Dr. Sparrow explores the possibility of creating embryos in the lab, then using the stem cells from those embryos to create egg and sperm cells, ...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 10, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Genetic Engineering Source Type: blogs
The Real War on Women Fueled by Abortion
There is a war on women being waged all over the world. It is not the fictional war on women that the Democrats keep prattling on about. It is a real war that takes the lives of millions of females every year. This real war is fueled by abortion. Sex-selective abortion, along with the less prevalent infanticide, kills more girls in China and India every year than are born in the United States. The number of girls "missing" in Asia is equivalent to the entire female population of the United States, the majority due to sex-selective abortion.This real war on women has been going on for decades and is now beginning ...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 9, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Abortion Source Type: blogs
Outlawing Abortion Will Help Children with Down Syndrome
On the New York Times parenting blogs, a mother of a girl with Down Syndrome argues against North Dakota's new law that outlaws abortion in cases of genetic abnormality. Alison Piepmeier says that Outlawing Abortion Wont Help Children with Down Syndrome. The premise is that parents abort babies with Down Syndrome because their child will face untold challenges. Piepmeier writes about her conversations with women who aborted their children:Repeatedly women told me that they ended the pregnancy not because they wanted a perfect child (as one woman said, I dont know what perfect child even means) but...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 4, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Abortion Source Type: blogs
Obama Announces BRAIN Initiative
Obama has announced his latest project, the BRAIN Initiative. BRAIN is short for Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies. Hinting at this $100 million project (to start) in his State of the Union address, Obama pronounced:
If we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the best ideas... Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy... Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimers
Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation. Now is the time to reach a level of research ...
Source: Mary Meets Dolly - April 3, 2013 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Tags: Biotechnology Source Type: blogs
