Are stem cells on the PR skids?

October 6 is “Stem Cell
Awareness Day”. But where are the celebrations? Extensive googling
failed to yield news of festivities. The California Institute for Regenerative
Medicine, which was set up to promote research on human embryonic stem cells,
has a section on its website dedicated to “Stem Cell Awareness Day 2010”.  But if you click on the link, you come
to a half-finished site, without graphics or information, a scientific Marie
Celeste bobbing on the internet.

The only feature that works is a
video made for Stem Cell Awareness Day last year in which a high school
teacher tells his students that stem cell research is more important than
health care, that stem cell research is health care. “Hopefully, in the future,
we’ll see everybody rejoicing about stem cell awareness because it has a
fantastic potential to play a very important part in our lives,” said the
CIRM’s director, Australian scientist Alan Trounson, in the 2009 video. Has the
helium leaked out of the balloon?

Michael Cook

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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