Bradley Fikes at the North County Times, whose coverage area is mostly the northern portion of San Diego County in California, appears to have broken a quite significant story last Thursday when he reported that cloning pioneer Ian Wilmut of Dolly the sheep fame (4,250 stories from 1996-2003 were found in the Google New archive; Wilmut is pictured at right in a partial grab of the original NCT photo) urged stem cell scientists, as Fikes headlined, to "shift away from embryonic stem cells." Wilmut, speaking at a stem cell research conference in nearby La Jolla, advocated instead for stronger pursuit of direct reprogramming of stem cells.
Five days later, searches at Google News on "Dolly sheep" (not in quotes) and Wilmut's name surfaced about a half-dozen other results, virtually all from religious and pro-life publications, and none from the establishment press. The same two searches at the Associated Press's main site (Dolly sheep; Ian Wilmut also come up empty.
(snip)
Sadly, Wilmut's uncertainty as to why adult stem cell research, especially that of the direct reprogramming variety, hasn't been pursued more vigorously lies in what seems to be an antilife bias bordering on obsessive in certain parts of the scientific research community and the government. Coupled with Geron Corp.'s mid-November decision to get out of embryonic research -- a decision the Associated Press laughably headlined as a "symbolic ding" and described as a "symbolic setback" in its text instead of as the "atom bomb of a story that will have a serious effect on the entire regenerative medical sector" as characterized by Wesley Smith at National Review's The Corner -- Wilmut's recommendation will hopefully be the beginning of the end for life-taking embryonic research.
Maybe the establishment press will figure it out about five years from now -- if ever. Read the story and the North County Times article here.
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