Clone the Truth #12

I hate to kick Seattle while they are down , but here is one for Clone the Truth from the Seattle Post Intelligencer.  This description of SCNT is so bad, it was hard to know where to begin.  As this was an AP story, I also sent a letter to AP.  Here it is:

Dear Editor,

 

I am writing to inform you of an error in the article "Stem-cell research divides GOP in Missouri" by Sam Hananel, dated 2/6/06 as seen on www.seattlepi.com.

 

Hananel describes somatic cell nuclear transfer or SCNT incorrectly.  He wrote, "Anti-abortion groups claim the procedure destroys human life because researchers grow cells using the altered nucleus of a human egg." 

This description of SCNT is not even close to accurate.  In SCNT, researchers remove the nucleus of an egg, replace it with the nucleus of a somatic cell, creating a cloned embryo, from which researchers extract the embryonic stem cells.  So it is from a cloned embryo that researchers extract stem cells, not from the "altered nucleus of a human egg."  Please see this animated tutorial on SCNT from Princeton's Dept. of Molecular Biology:

 

http://www.molbio.princeton.edu/courses/mb427/2001/projects/09/transfertutorial.htm

 

 

It is critical that your readers understand SCNT or therapeutic cloning so they can make informed decisions about this procedure at the state and federal level.  That requires the proper terminology.  I therefore ask that you print a correction.

 

Sincerely,

Rebecca Taylor