Saturday, February 6, 2010

Iowa is Becoming Ethical

"The service of humanity leads us to insist, in season and out of season, that those using the latest advances of science, especially in the field of biotechnology, must never disregard fundamental ethical requirements by invoking a questionable solidarity which eventually leads to discriminating between one life and another and ignoring the dignity which belongs to every human being." - Pope John Paul II
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I just found out about the John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute in Iowa City, Iowa:                                                        http://www.jp2sri.org/

"The JP2SRI's mission focuses on developing therapies and diagnostic tools for treating diseases that may benefit from adult and umbilical cord-derived stem cells. The Institute mission is to educate other scientists and the next generation of scientists in pro-life bioethics."

"The Institute strictly focuses on adult and cord blood stem cell research and education. The Institute's goal is to focus on reducing the barriers of translate basic research into clinical research."

"The Institute represents an opportunity for pro-life individuals to support ethical-derived stem cell research consistent with pro-life values. JP2SRI DOES NOT conduct human embryonic stem cell research and does not perform therapeutic cloning or somatic cell nuclear transfer"
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It is both exciting, and encouraging, to see the continuous expansion of science taking ethics into consideration.  It is especially neat to see this occuring in the midwest!  It is great to look at this with regards to the Pope Paul VI Institute in Iowa's neighboring (yet less worthy...) state of Nebraska.