There’s so much out there on stem cells…

…let’s go roundtable.

There’s this on the correction in Nature magazine, with this lead:

A leading medical journal has issued two “corrections” regarding misleading news releases concerning a study conducted by a biotech firm claiming to have created a morally acceptable method of obtaining embryonic stem cells. Though Advanced Cell Technology said no human embryos were destroyed, in fact all were killed.    

There there’s this on the the skewed attention these stories of success and failure are getting, and where some attention is well deserved.

In contrast to the excitement generated by a U.S. company’s claims to have created “ethical” embryonic stem cells (ESCs), relatively little interest met a Japanese finding that “adult” stem cells from mice can be reprogrammed to closely resemble ESCs — a potential breakthrough in a field that is roiling politics in the U.S. and elsewhere.  

Also, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is warning that we’re crossing the bizarre frontier of the Brave New World in the biomedical realm.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a 2008 Republican presidential hopeful, said Thursday his administration’s new restrictions on stem cell research are aimed at heading off an “Orwellian” future. The state’s Department of Public Health this week issued regulations banning the creation of embryos for research purposes…“I believe it crosses a very bright moral line to take sperm and eggs in the laboratory and start creating human life,” Romney told reporters. “It is Orwellian in its scope. In laboratories you could have trays of new embryos being created.” The article notes what we all know, that stem cells have become politically and ethically volatile.

Speaking of which:

Missouri State University political science professor George Connor says public opinion on a constitutional amendment to protect various forms of stem cell research will be closely divided by time the November election rolls around. A poll conducted by the St. Louis Post Dispatch in January found that 64% of Missourians believe the state should pursue all forms of stem cell research approved under federal law, including embryonic research.

But Connor predicts that gap will narrow once opponents gear up against the amendment this fall. “It’s 60-40 right now, but it will be at least 50-50 by November, if not going the other way,” Connor says.

Now, what do you think? About the science, the reporting, the politics and the ethics of it all? Better know before you go to the polls in November. And while you’re thinking about it, take a scroll down to the earlier posts here, and here.