The End of The Stem Cell Debate?

It appears that science has advanced to the point of not needing to destroy human embryos (read: beings) in order to produce stem cells.

Pro-life scientist urges federal funding of new stem cell technique
Jim BrownOneNewsNow.comNovember 26, 2007

An international expert on stem-cell research and cloning is hailing the discovery of a new technique that allows scientists to obtain embryonic stem cells in an ethical fashion.

Two teams of scientists have reported that they have succeeded in directly reprogramming human skin cells to turn into embryonic-like stem cells. The groups have produced what are called "iPS" cells (induced Pluripotent Stem cells) by adding four genetic factors to a human skin cell. No embryos are created or destroyed, and no cloning or eggs are needed in the process.

The breakthrough is welcome news to people like Dr. David Prentice, a senior fellow for life sciences at the Family Research Council, and prominent critic of embryo-destructive research. "It looks like very soon they'll be able to get around the use of viruses ... and just use some simple chemicals probably to do that reprogramming with the genes," he explains. "So that's really not a great hurdle."

Prentice says federal funding of existing embryonic stem-cell lines should be used to further the new technique, even though scientific questions about the research remain.
"You're still going to have the typical problems you have with any embryonic stem cell -- the potential for tumor formation, being able to control them and get the right cell," he says. "They have not yet proven that these will match the person that they're taken from."

But that does not discourage the cloning expert from calling for federal funds to be redirected. "The funds that are being used now for those embryonic stem-cell lines that were derived by destroying human embryos ought to be shifted to this research," he argues. "That way we don't have to worry about taxpayer funds going towards anything unethical."

Prentice says there also ought to be a push now to pass the Brownback-Weldon cloning ban in Congress in light of the fact that Dr. Ian Wilmut, who cloned "Dolly" the sheep, has turned his back on cloning in favor of using the iPS cells.

"They ought to just drop this whole push to destroy more embryos or to clone," he insists. "We're already hearing that some members of Congress who might have been on the fence and were sort of biting the bullet" in the embryonic stem cell debate will decide they do not need to support that bill that President Bush vetoed.

Prentice believes the new discovery is sure to "let the wind out of the sails" of proponents of embryo-destructive research.
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