Stem cells - perhaps no other development in medical research offers the potential for so much good. But in order to produce stem cells, an egg had to be fertilized, creating a human embryo. In the process of harvesting the stem cells, the embryo is destroyed.
For those who believe that life starts at conception, the moral argument against stem cell research was the same as abortion. Now, a new breakthrough has been made that creates stem cells my manipulating several genes in skin cells. No embryos have to be created and destroyed in the process.
What is remarkable about this is that the new technique is much less complicated and less expensive than the original method. Due to concerns of the ethics of of embryonic stem cells, the Bush Administration helped to fund the research that resulted in this new breakthrough.
There are many, many laboratories that have a vested interest in the embryonic method, and will resist the change in method. But the simplicity, economics, and ethics of the new method will win the day. The following is a very interesting article profiling the work of James Thompson, a pioneer in the original stem cell method as well as the new breakthrough.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/science/22stem.html?ref=us
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment