Aggregated News
WHAT'S in a name? When it comes to controversial science, a lot.
South Korean scientists recently announced that they had used cloning to produce 11 human embryos, then destroyed them to harvest their embryonic stem cells. Actually, they said they had used "somatic cell nuclear transfer" to produce "human NT blastocysts," from which they extracted "hESC."
In fact, nowhere in their paper did they actually use the word "clone."
"Everybody is terrified of the word, 'cloning' " said Dr. David Shaywitz, a stem cell researcher at Harvard University. "It conjures up so many frightening images."
"Both sides are trying to manipulate language," he added. "People who are opposed to the research go out of their way to use that word and people who support the research are trying to find other ways to explain what they are doing."
But cloning opponents are disturbed by the way stem cell scientists these days almost always speak of "somatic cell nuclear transfer" rather than "cloning."
"The most important thing to be said is that the language is changing and it seems to have...
South Korean scientists recently announced that they had used cloning to produce 11 human embryos, then destroyed them to harvest their embryonic stem cells. Actually, they said they had used "somatic cell nuclear transfer" to produce "human NT blastocysts," from which they extracted "hESC."
In fact, nowhere in their paper did they actually use the word "clone."
"Everybody is terrified of the word, 'cloning' " said Dr. David Shaywitz, a stem cell researcher at Harvard University. "It conjures up so many frightening images."
"Both sides are trying to manipulate language," he added. "People who are opposed to the research go out of their way to use that word and people who support the research are trying to find other ways to explain what they are doing."
But cloning opponents are disturbed by the way stem cell scientists these days almost always speak of "somatic cell nuclear transfer" rather than "cloning."
"The most important thing to be said is that the language is changing and it seems to have...