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Opinion
Nature 412, 255 (19 July 2001) | doi:10.1038/35085689
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The meaning of life
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Abstract
'Pro-life' groups define the beginning of human life as the union of sperm and egg, and equate the harvesting of human embryonic stem cells to homicide. But our biological understanding lends little support to these views.
Last week, a private clinic in Virginia further inflamed the debate over embryonic stem (ES) cell research. Researchers at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk announced that they had created human embryos by in vitro fertilization for the sole purpose of harvesting ES cells.
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