It didn't take long for the Nazi comparisons to start did it?

Newhouse, you really know how to torture an analogy. The similarities I was alluding to in my gas analogy is that this is not an either/or situation. We should have both, as today we have both electricity and gas because they are useful in their own right for different reasons and different situations. Saying one is superior over the other depends on the context you are going to use them in.

To suggest banning embryonic stem cell research before we have the full results is just jumping the gun a bit don't you think? And the reason it takes so long to get results and do this research is because we have so many controls in place to ensure that it's done ethically and with full knowledge, especially where their use as therapies are concerned. The modern medical researcher is nothing like a Nazi, except if you are continually late for work.

Looking around at other articles on this topic a couple of points came up

- The technique has the advantage of not requiring egg to make it work. That appears to be a significant advantage to this approach.
- Don't toss the alternatives out just yet http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1370 "cloning strategies that work in mice do not always work in humans" and "But applying the technique to humans is not problem-free. For one thing, stem cells produced this way are prone to turn cancerous because one of the four genes transferred is the cancer-causing gene c-Myc."

My guess is that if the equivalent results can be achieved from a simpler technique that does not require access to egg's then not many will be real interested in doing the more complex approach for no gain.

R0bert

As a medical doctor I would have thought that David van Gend could put aside his religous beliefs in favour of a truly critical analysis of stem cell and cloning technologies. The Yamanaka work is good but in very early stages. It may eventually be a replacement for somatic cell nuclear transfer but has only been done in mice and may not work in humans. It will not replace important research into human embryonic stem cell research. To be very clear, human embryonic stem cell research only uses embryos that are excess to the IVF process, with permissions and under license, and that will be destroyed anyway by being thrown out. Hundreds of excess IVF embryos are thrown away every year as they are no longer required or were not suitable for implantation.

I would like to see some perspective here, not irrational thoughts based on religous dogma.