Coulter's list: Original, or… not?
Chapter 7 of Godless tries to make a case against "the left's war on science." Coulter endeavors to counter the claim that there have been no successes in treating diseases with adult stem cell (as opposed to embryonic stem cells).
She writes, "In the August 24, 2004, New York Times, science writer Gina Kolata claimed that no one had succeeded in using adult stem cells 'to treat diseases.'" Coulter says Kolata is wrong, and lists what she says are sixteen "successful treatments achieved by adult stem cell research." It's interesting how similar (read: almost identical) Coulter's list is to a list of sixteen items that appeared on the Illinois Right to Life's website in 2003 (Godless was published in 2006).
Coulter gives no credit to the Illinois Right to Life's website for providing either the information or the wording for "her" list. Even the order of the items is remarkably similar, differing only in the first items listed. Here are the items in Coulter's list, and the comparable Illinois Right to Life website's item. Notice how, with only minor spelling or punctuation changes, Coulter makes the information her own:
Illinois Right To Life: Spinal cord injury repair (using stem cells from nasal and sinus regions)
Coulter: Repairing spinal cord injuries by using stem cells from nasal and sinus regions.
Illinois Right To Life: Complete reversal of juvenile diabetes in mice using adult spleen cells
Coulter: Completely reversing Type 1 diabetes in mice using adult spleen cells
Illinois Right To Life: Crohn’s Disease put into remission (using patient’s blood stem cells)
Coulter: Putting Crohn's disease into remission with the patient's own blood stem cells
Illinois Right To Life: Lupus put into remission (using stem cells from patient’s bloodstream)
Coulter: Putting lupus into remission using stem cells from the patient's bloodstream
Illinois Right To Life: Repair heart muscle in cases of congestive heart failure (using stem cells from bone marrow)
Coulter: Repairing the heart muscles in patients with congestive heart failure using adult stem cells from bone marrow.
Illinois Right To Life: Repair heart attack damage (using the patient’s own blood stem cells)
Coulter: Repairing heart attack damage with the patient’s own blood stem cells
Illinois Right To Life: Restore bone marrow in cancer patients (using stem cells from umbilical cord blood)
Coulter: Restoring bone marrow in cancer patients using stem cells from umbilical cord blood.
Illinois Right To Life: Restore weak heart muscles (using immature skeletal muscle cells)
Coulter: Restoring weak heart muscles using immature skeletal muscle cells
Illinois Right To Life: Put leukemia into remission (using umbilical cord blood)
Coulter: Putting leukemia into remission using umbilical cord blood
Illinois Right To Life: Heal bone fractures (using bone marrow cells)
Coulter: Healing bone fractures with bone marrow cells.
Illinois Right To Life: Restore a blind man’s sight (using an ocular surface stem-cell transplant & a cornea transplant)
Coulter: Restoring sight in blind people using an ocular surface stem-cell transplant and a cornea transplant
Illinois Right To Life: Treat urinary incontinence (using under arm muscle stem cells)
Coulter: Treating urinary incontinence using stem cells from underarm muscle
Illinois Right To Life: Reverse severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) (using genetically modified adult stem cells)
Coulter: Reversing severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) with genetically modified adult cells.
Illinois Right To Life: Restore blood circulation in legs (using bone marrow stem cells)
Coulter: Restoring blood circulation in legs with bone marrow stem cells.
Illinois Right To Life: Treat sickle-cell anemia (using stem cells from unbilical cord blood)
Coulter: Treating sickle-cell anemia using stem cells from umbilical cord blood.
"Plagiarism" is addressed and defined on the websites for both of Coulter's alma maters, the University of Michigan and Cornell University. Cornell University's definition, for example, is as follows:
Plagiarism is misrepresenting somebody else's intellectual work - ideas, information, writing, thinking - as your own. In other words, it is a misuse of source material. Whether intentional or unintentional, plagiarism is a serious violation of Cornell's Code of Academic Integrity.
Even if one could somehow manage to overlook the obvious lifting of material (we wonder if Cornell would), one would have to admit that at the very least the repetition and order of items in both lists makes it clear Coulter used the Illinois Right to Life list as a reference, one she somehow forgot to credit properly in her voluminous footnotes.
Sources:
The Raw Story
Illinois Right to Life
University of Michigan
Cornell University