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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-08-22

The End Of That Debate

Scientists for the first time have turned ordinary skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells -- without having to use human eggs or make new human embryos in the process, as has always been required in the past, a Harvard research team announced yesterday.

The technique uses laboratory-grown human embryonic stem cells -- such as the ones that President Bush has already approved for use by federally funded researchers -- to "reprogram" the genes in a person's skin cell, turning that skin cell into an embryonic stem cell itself.

Of course, there is still the question of whether ebryonic stem-cells ever develop into useful therapies--so far, all they're good for is creating tumors--or whether this is the most efficient expenditure of federal money. But if Michael J. Fox can simply go donate some of his own skin to create a treatment for his Parkinson's, this is one political football that just has no air left.
Posted by: Michael / 8/22/2005 06:20:00 AM

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