Via Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review Online, more good news about induced pluripotent stem cells. While this is merely a more efficient method of inducing transformation of adult cells into stem cells, rather than a wholly new stem cell discovery, it is still another helpful step in developing stem cell-based strategies to repair human tissue. For those of us who see ethical problems with the destruction of human embryos for harvesting of their stem cells, but who also want to pursue the potential medical-scientific benefits from stem cells, the far greater promise of medical advances from adult stem cells is more likely to be realized with scientific advances of this kind. Adult stem cells not only avoid the ethical issues, but also are better from a utilitarian standpoint. They present fewer issues of tissue rejection.
“The facts of life are conservative.” - Margaret Thatcher
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