TRIBUNE-REVIEW
University of Pittsburgh researchers have discovered what could be the ultimate prize in biomedicine -- cells that behave like embryonic stem cells but don't raise confounding ethical questions.
These cells -- called amniotic epithelial cells -- share many of the characteristics that make embryonic stem cells so highly coveted, such as the capacity to become cells for other body tissues and organs and to make copies of themselves, according to Stephen Strom, an associate professor of cellular and molecular pathology at Pitt. Unlike embryonic stem cells, their harvest doesn't require the destruction of human embryos.
1 comment:
compare with embryonic stem cell research - 1 published article of 1 experiment that went so horribly wrong (the patients got worse instead of better!) that it had to be stopped before it was complete.
in medicine we have to exercise a form of triage mentality every day: how much benefit can reasonably be expected to come from a certain treatment for a patient? is it enough that i want to commit my limited resources to it? escr does not reasonably promise enough benefit to justify diverting resources away from more promising alternative techniques to support it.
besides the fact that you have to kill many people in the earliest stages of life just to see if it will work.
terry george
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