Embryo-safe stem cells created
Scientists have for the first time grown colonies of human embryonic stem cells using a technique that does not require destruction of embryos, an advance that could significantly reshape ethical and political debates about the research.The work, described in today’s issue of the journal Nature, shows that even a single cell plucked from an early human embryo can be coaxed to divide repeatedly in a laboratory dish and grow into a colony of stem cells, coveted for their potential to mend failing organs.
Advanced Cell Technology scientists have since turned some of the cells into blood vessels, retinal eye cells and other potentially useful tissues.
This seems like a very good thing. Not only will it allow very important research to go forward with much greater support, it also will allow us to use these technologies without the moral grayness of creating and killing one life to benefit another.
While I don’t hold the ‘blastocysts are people’ too morality, the creation and killing scenario did trouble me, not necessarily for its intrinsic evil, but as a step onto a slope that might prove quite slippery.
I expect that most people on both sides of the debate will welcome this.
One thing to think about though, without all those who oppossed embryonic stem cells, and were often called luddites or worse, this technique probably wouldn’t exist.
