Cloneless in Carolina

SOUTH CAROLINA LEGISLATURE

ONLINE, June 6 — Without opposition, the Prohibition of Human Cloning Act (H 3819) has passed the South Carolina House of Representatives and moved to the State Senate. Passage of the bill, which bans all cloning of human embryos, is believed to mark the first time pro-life legislation has ever made it through the chamber uncontested.

Grant Challenged

THE GRAND ISLAND INDEPENDENT, June 5 — Nebraska's assistant attorney general has cried foul over the granting of money from the state's health department to Planned Parenthood and another “familyplanning” organization, reported the Nebraska daily newspaper.

The state Department of Health and Human Services applied for the $100,000 grant in 2002 to establish a “Teen Clinic Pilot Project” with Lincoln Planned Parenthood and Hastings Family Planning. The clinics were to hold “Teen Nights,” during which youths would receive information about birth control, pregnancy tests, pap smears and tests for detecting sexually transmitted diseases.

In a written opinion, Assistant Attorney General Jason Hayes said the grants conflicted with a state law that says “no funds appropriated or distributed under this act shall be used for abortion, abortion counseling, referral for abortion [or] school-based health clinics. … Nebraska Health and Human Services System did err in awarding the grant … and the grant is void as a matter of law.”

Marrow Cells Boost Immunity

CANADA.COM, June 9 — Researchers have uncovered a type of stem cell in bone marrow that could strengthen immune systems weakened by cancer treatments or transplants, according to a study published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Instead of shooting stem cells into the bloodstream, which is the standard method, scientists at the University Health Network in Toronto injected a bone-marrow stem cell directly into the bone marrow of mice. These stem cells began to produce new white blood cells about two weeks sooner than blood-producing stem cells injected into the bloodstream.

People undergoing chemotherapy or recovering from transplants are at high risk following treatment because their medications severely impair their immune system. “If you can reduce the amount of time that a patient is without a functioning immune system, that is an important discovery,” said Dr. Michael McBurney, director of research for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Center.

Pediatric Heart Patients Live

THE HERALD (Glasgow, Scotland), June 9 — Thanks to medical and surgical breakthroughs over the past 40 years, three in five children born with a complex heart defect — including some forms of “hole in the heart” or serious valve defects — now live to at least 16 years of age, reports the British Heart Foundation. In 1960, only one in five babies lived beyond childhood.