Stem Cells Grown from Embryos Without Obvious Harm

Scientists at Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Massachusetts led by Robert Lanza have announced today that they have taken human embryos and harvested cells from them to produce colonies of stem cells without obvious harm to to the embryo.  The word "obvious" is used since there is no way to tell if any damage was truly done except by implanting an embryo in a uterus and seeing if the fetus develops normally.  To do so would be an unethical experiment.

However, fertility doctors use a technique called single-cell biopsy to test for genetic abnormalities in embryos created by in vitro fertilization, without apparent harm to the implantable embryo.  Very few studies have been done to determine whether biopsied embryos are any different from those without the procedure, but in terms of viability, biopsied embryos have at least the same rate of success as those without biopsy in patients who use in vitro fertilization.

Nevertheless, this does add further hope to the science of stem cells, since the recently touted alternative uses a cancer gene and a virus to infect human skin cells to produce stem cells, and thereby contaminates them.  Many scientists believe that they can overcome the problems and issues raised from this alternative process.  Further, it is still not known if these stem cells are the same as those derived from embryos, since this avenue is still the golden standard in stem cell research.  It is clear that research in both areas needs to be completely explored.

 

One major question this raises is whether this research would be eligible for federal funding since stem cells were created without harming embryos, which is the requirement to receive funds.  Nonetheless, it is unlikely that the current administration would allow such funding with one possible exception.  If stem cells were harvested from an embryo and that embryo went on to be implanted with the outcome of a healthy human child, there would at least be proof that no harm was done in that particular case.