Media Jumped on ESCR Bandwagon Prematurely, Says Christian Activist
by Mary Rettig
August 31, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The president of the Christian organization Stand to Reason says the mainstream media recently gave a free pass to a Massachusetts research firm by not questioning any of the results when the group announced a supposed "breakthrough" in embryonic stem-cell research.Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) claimed recently in a report that it had been able to extract embryonic stem cells from human embryos without harming them. But Greg Koukl says ACT's supposed ethical method for extracting embryonic stem cells was not that at all. He say that, in fact, every single embryo in the trial was killed -- a fact he says was not reported in the media.
"The media's hot on a good story, and they're looking for something that is newsworthy. [But] unfortunately, the media does not do its homework," says Koukl. "The LA Times, of all the papers around the country, was the only newspaper that mentioned the problem with this test that was cited here in Nature, that it really wasn't a test of the thing that it claimed to test."
According to Koukl, the "ethical method" of gaining embryonic stems cells that was trumpeted was not even used or proven, and was simply hyped-up by an over exuberant media.
"[The media] kind of dismissed ... with a wave of the hand [that the embryos were killed]," he says. "So newspaper reporters are not researchers."
Other pro-life groups that have been critical of ACT's less-than-forthright announcement include Focus on the Family Action and the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity (CBHD). Carrie Gordon Earll with Focus on the Family Action says it was not the first time that "the promoters of unlimited, unrestricted biotechnology research are making up the facts as they go along." And Ben Mitchell with the CBHD says it was "a bit disingenuous" for ACT to suggest its new protocol would eliminate all the ethical problems" associated with embryonic stem-cell research.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
