Scientists Clone Human Embryos To Make Stem Cells 92
cyachallenge writes "Scientists say they have, for the first time, cloned human embryos capable of producing embryonic stem cells. 'We had to find the perfect combination,' Mitalipov says. As it turned out, that perfect combination included something surprising: caffeine. That ingredient, plus other tweaks in the process, including using fresh eggs and determining the optimal stage of each egg's development, Mitalipov says."
A cloned embryo is... (Score:5, Insightful)
So if one has any sort of ethical dilemma with harvesting stem cells from embryos under the notion that such willful destruction of embryos is equivalent to premeditated homicide, this particular technique shouldn't make those people breathe any easier, and in fact, may be cause for them to scream even more outrage at the notion that, to use words they might throw around, "they are creating even more people to deliberately murder".
Re:Great (Score:0, Insightful)
Now they'll have the anti stem cell AND anti cloning nutjobs to deal with.
Most reasonable people in either of those camps share something in common: they don't want to kill a (potential) human being (eg. embryo).
There is no ethical problems with using stem cells derived from adults; it's only when an embryo is destroyed to harvest its cells.
My qualm with cloning is that it involves wiping the genetic from the egg (thus destroying that potential individual) and populating it with the desired genetic code.
Re:Great (Score:3, Insightful)
> My qualm with cloning is that it involves wiping the genetic from the egg (thus destroying that potential individual) and populating it with the desired genetic code.
Your qualm is that the genetic material from an egg is destroyed?
But doesn't this happen every month in a woman who isn't pregnant?
Re:A cloned embryo is... (Score:2, Insightful)