Topic: WorldNetDaily
In a Nov. 24 article, WorldNetDaily attributes to conservative activist and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson the claim that "[a]t least 70 conditions already are being treated with stem cells."
As we've detailed, this is false. This number -- forwarded by anti-embryonic stem cell researcher David Prentice in a list of ailments purportedly treatable by adult stem cells -- has been discredited; FDA-approved adult stem cell treatments are available for only nine diseases.
The WND article also excerpts a New York Times article quoting James Thompson, leader of a team of researchers that found a way to turn ordinary human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without using a human embryo. as saying that the research supercedes the need for embryonic stem cells -- or, in WND's words, "the war is virtually over." But the article did not note that in a Times article the day before in which it is attributed to Thompson and a Japanese researcher making the same discovery that that "it would be premature to abandon research with stem cells taken from human embryos."
