In one niche, the risk to women is too great
        
            By Judy Norsigian, 
                The Boston Globe
             | 11. 14. 2010
        
            [Op-Ed]
                    
                                    
                    
                                                                                                                                    
                                                                            
                              
    
  
  
    
  
          
  
      
    
            Not all stem cell research is in women's best interest.
  
 
The issue of embryonic stem cell research has long been clouded by certain activists — notably those from conservative Christian groups — who seek to stop all such research because it involves destruction of an embryo. In contrast, many pro-choice women’s health advocates like my own organization have long supported most embryonic stem cell research. But there is a small subset of this research we oppose — somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT, also called embryo cloning or research cloning) — because of substantial concerns about health risks for the women who provide the fresh eggs that this research demands.
 
  As part of SCNT, the nucleus of an egg (from an egg donor) is removed, and the nucleus of an adult stem cell is inserted in its place. By contrast, conventional embryonic stem cell research utilizes otherwise discarded embryos from fertility clinics, and does not require freshly harvested eggs, where women undergo the risks of egg extraction solely for research purposes. This distinction is crucial.
 
  Because thousands of women regularly undergo...
 
       
 
  
 
    
    
  
   
                        
                                                                                
                 
                                                    
                            
                                  
    
  
  
      Related Articles
    
  
          
  
  
  
  
  
  
      
            
                  
  
      
    
    
    
    
            Paula Amato & Shoukhrat Mitalipov
[OHSU News/Christine Torres Hicks]
On September 30th, a team of 21 scientists from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) published a significant paper in Nature Communications, with a scientifically accurate but, to many, somewhat abstruse headline:
Induction of experimental cell division to generate cells with reduced chromosome ploidy
The lead authors were Shoukhrat Mitalipov, recently described here as “a push-the-envelope biologist,” and his long-term colleague Paula Amato. (Recall that in July the pair had co-published with...
 
       
 
 
  
      
    
    
                
                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                           By Jay S. Kaufman,  Los Angeles Review of Books | 09.27.2025
                                                        
     
    
    
            This is the 10th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. The series is organized by Osagie K. Obasogie in...
 
       
 
 
  
      
    
    
                
                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                           By Julia Black,  MIT Technology Review | 10.16.2025
                                                        
     
    
    
            Consider, if you will, the translucent blob in the eye of a microscope: a human blastocyst, the biological specimen that emerges just five days or so after a fateful encounter between egg and sperm. This bundle of cells, about the size of...
 
       
 
 
  
      
    
    
                
                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                           By Lizzy Lawrence,  Stat News | 10.14.2025