Stem Cell Wars: Inside Stories from the Frontlines

Eve Herold presents an Author's Q&A. > Click here.

STEM CELL WARS will be in U.S. bookstores on September 19, 2006. It will be released in the UK, Europe and Australia in January 2007. Preorder today on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

Contents:The Field of Battle • Two Worlds Colliding • The Science that Started a Revolution • Hijacked by the Politics of Abortion • The Battle for Hearts and Minds • Political Spin and the Weapons of Mass Distraction • Ethics and the Embryo • Health Care and Hypocrisy • Korea: Great Expectations • Korea: The Fall • Winning the Peace

“The most important (and often overlooked) element in the stem cell research equation is the patients who are struggling right now. Eve Herold knows the people involved in the struggle for stem cell research because she herself is at the center of the storm. An outstanding science writer, Ms. Herold makes the issues clear in a fascinatingly readable style. Engaging and clearly written, this is a must-have book to understand what’s happening behind the scenes where a political mistake could delay life-and-death research for decades. As someone who has been involved in stem cell politics essentially since it began, I learned a lot from this book!”

- Don C. Reed
Chair, Californians for Cures

      In 1998, when researchers James Thomson and John D. Gearhart, separately, first isolated human embryonic "master" cells, no one could have predicted that such an obscure branch of biomedical research would set off a firestorm of controversy. Yet in this short time, the field of embryonic stem cell research has spawned an intense religious debate, divided legal and ethical experts, ignited activists on both sides, exploded into the political spotlight and become one of the most contentious wedge issues in modern political history.

      No one will escape being somehow affected by this cutting-edge research, which the nation's leading scientists have called "revolutionary," "a new paradigm in medicine." The incredible possibility of cellular replacements means that the hardwired biological limits that we all learned about in science class could simply fall by the wayside like Newtonian physics or the theory that the earth is the center of the universe. However, while over 100 million Americans wait for cures for some of humanity's most devastating ailments, the most promising research of our time is being held hostage by politics. Misinformation aimed at stopping stem cell research abounds, and has even dominated debate in the halls of the U.S. Congress, the Senate, and in policies issued from the White House.

      In Stem Cell Wars: Inside Stories from the Frontlines, Eve Herold cuts through the confusion and answers the most common questions about this revolutionary field - questions such as, "Is life-saving research really being suppressed in the United States?" "Do we need to conduct embryonic stem cell research when adult stem cells are claimed to have so much promise?" "Can I be a person of faith and still be in favor of all types of stem cell research?" and of course, "When can we expect to see cures developed from this groundbreaking science?"

      Written in accessible language that anyone can understand, this book shows how cutting-edge science is propelling humanity to reexamine some of its most cherished assumptions. Today’s controversy is placed within a historical context of periodic upheavals set off by new scientific discoveries, from Galileo to Dolly the sheep. Ms. Herold explains how the issue has been hijacked by the modern right-to-life movement, and tells the stories of the patients and their advocates who are fighting to end government restrictions on the research that could save their lives. Along the way, readers are forced to examine their own closely-held assumptions in light of how profoundly affected each of us will be by this revolutionary science.

      The last three chapters of the book tell the spellbinding story of the Korean cloning tragedy that shook the world in 2005 and 2006. Ms. Herold was the only Westerner and "outsider" to witness first-hand the unraveling of the Dr. Woo Suk Hwang’s fraudulent claims of being the first in the world to clone human stem cells. From meeting and personally interviewing Hwang, attending the opening ceremonies of the Korean World Stem Cell Hub and petting Snuppy, the world’s first cloned dog, to being called in to help investigate the first rumors of impropriety, the author bears witness to one of the most extensive scientific frauds of all time. In the end, she sifts through the wreckage and ultimately uncovers the most compelling lesson of all - that it is the responsibility of developed nations to not only stay in the game, but to lead the world in stem cell research.

      Americans have been the victims of misinformation about stem cell research, but Stem Cell Wars: Inside Stories from the Frontlines leaves no stone unturned in its analysis of the modern-day collision of stem cell science, history, politics and religion. Packed with real-life stories of the people caught up in this groundbreaking struggle, Stem Cell Wars cuts through the noise and sets the standard for public debate for some time to come.