Science 101: Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells are Not Human Embryos

September 16, 2013

The scientific advances come at a dizzying pace—stem cells, cloning, lab-grown organs, 3-parent embryos.  Many of these experiments pose significant ethical challenges. For example, the cloning technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer uses the DNA of a body cell and an egg cell to create a new embryo.  The laboratory creation of the cloned organism crosses an ethical line, as well as the subsequent use of the new being for laboratory experiments, including destruction to harvest his or her embryonic stem cells. This is exactly what happened recently when Oregon scientists created cloned human embryos and, for the first time, successfully grew embryonic stem cells from the clones.  Yet the terminology and explanations from some quarters served only to confuse many . . . (LifeNews)