Dr. Thomson’s laboratory at the University of Wisconsin was one of two that in 1998 plucked stem cells from human embryos for the first time, destroying the embryos in the process and touching off a divisive national debate.Amidst all the screaming about how important it was to harvest stem cells from embryos, I had never heard that the originator of the technique had serious moral misgivings about it. From what the press reported, it sounded like the scientists doing it were racing eagerly to throw as many embryos as possible into the Cuisinart to get at the stem cells.
And on Tuesday, his laboratory was one of two that reported a new way to turn ordinary human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without ever using a human embryo.
The fact is, Dr. Thomson said in an interview, he had ethical concerns about embryonic research from the outset, even though he knew that such research offered insights into human development and the potential for powerful new treatments for disease.
“If human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough,” he said. “I thought long and hard about whether I would do it.”
H/T: The A VC blog.
3 comments:
KT, I had some thoughts on the matter here. http://beerswithdemo.blogspot.com/2007/11/one-down-one-to-go.html
Hopefully the link works.
(sigh)... In short, I supported the Prez's decision to restrict federal funding of embyonic stem cell research because a) I was against using tax payer money on something containing ethical reservations and b) if embryonic stem cell research is to be all that its cranked-up to be then I figure there should be plenty of private money jumping in to bankroll the research.
K T Cat,
If you don't mind, I am going to help out Dean with the link. His post is on Beers with Demo at this article.
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