Christian Bioethics Group in Korea Files Suit

Korea Times reports:

A coalition of some 20 religious, medical and law research groups plans to lodge a petition with the Constitutional Court against the bioethics law, claiming the law runs counter to the spirit of the Constitution. A member of the Korean Christian Bioethics Association said the group will review whether it is realistic to file the petition from a legal point of view. ``The most problematic aspect of the law is that embryo will be allowed to be used for research purposes,'' said Kim Il-su, professor of Korea University and co-chairman of the association. ``As embryos are recognized as life, it is against the spirit of the Constitution regarding respect for human dignity and life to use human embryos for research,'' he said.

Korean Stem Cell Claims

This story in the Korean times makes the claim that Korean researchers have demonstrated the ability of this patient to walk as a result of umbilical cord blood derived stem cells. The story is being trumpeted everywhere as the 'research Reeve was pushing for, if only society would have allowed it to go forward', but in fact the most likely spin of this report - if it even turns out to be real and replicable - will be that the embryo-derived stem cells Reeve lobbied for aren't what he needed. Which may or may not be true, but either way it is annoying because the power of adult cells to heal cannot be fully explored without continuing research on embryos at least for a few more years.