In the latest feat of stem cell wizardry, researchers have been able to create viable new lines of embryonic stem cells from human embryos that were not destroyed in the process.
The accomplishment is the newest wrinkle in a rapidly evolving effort to find ways to develop prized human embryonic stem cells without the ethical baggage that has plagued the field since its inception nearly a decade ago. Already, the new method is generating controversy.
This new method differs from a breakthrough late last year by University of Wisconsin-Madison and Japanese researchers in that it uses embryos, not genetically engineered skin cells. In the UW work, those skin cells appear to act like embryonic stem cells, but more research is needed before embryonic stem cell work could be abandoned