THE shoot CELL DIVIDE The Fac...

THE shoot CELL DIVIDE

The Facts, the Fiction, and the Fear Driving the Greatest Scientific, Political and Religious Debate of our Time

from Michael Bellomo

Amacom, 262 pages, $2495

at no time since the debate over abortion has a enthrall been so hotly argued as embryonic scion cell research. Proponents of this emblem of science say it detains fabulous promise for those who sustain chronic illnesses such as Alzheimer's Disease, juvenile diabetes and Parkinson's. Christopher Reeve the actor who portrayed Superman, raised millions of dollars for main stock cell research after he endureed severe paralysis due to a horse-riding accident. He believed offspring cell therapies could be used in the coming to repair spinal cord injuries.

still the opponents of human embryonic offspring cell research, including President Bush who vetoed a Congressional bill expanding federal funding for it, claim it swallow ups human life. One cannot help recall, however, that during his occupancy as governor of Texas, Bush signed the death warrant for 152 prisoners, more than any other governor in latter history.

The process in law the passion and the promise of this developing science is clearly laid without in The Stem Cell Divide on Michael Bellomo. Bellomo tries not to take sides unless presents both the potential and the risk of human embryonic shoot cell therapy and details the history of the research into it. He begins with English scientist Robert Hooke who, looking from one side a hand-crafted microscope, discovered little confined apartments which he named after the small places where medieval monks lived.

Bellomo's part is sort of a "Dummies Guide" to stipe cell research laying it abroad in simple language with terrific anecdotes. As he notes, "Regardless of who sits in the White House, the genie of scion cell research has been permit out of its plastic T-flask. Whether we agree with the flow or shun it as a fruits of science that has gone disclosed of control, it will happen. The alone question is: When?"

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