Topic: Stem Cells from Dead Human Embryo

[Orstio]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060923/ap_on_sc/stem_cells

NEW YORK - Scientists say they have created a stem cell line from a human embryo that had stopped developing naturally, and so was considered dead. Using such embryos might ease ethical concerns about creating such cells, they suggested.

One expert said the technique makes harvesting stem cells no more ethically troublesome than organ donation. But others said it still carries scientific and ethical problems.

Scientists want to use human embryonic stem cells to study diseases and create transplant tissue for treating illnesses such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease. Such cells are taken from human embryos that are a few days old, and the harvesting process destroys the embryo. That raises ethical objections.

[BioGene]

I love genetics firstly to say and hope to actually study them at university and later on in my life. But I disagree with what is being done with these human embryos. If we had a way of taking out a few cells and then leaving the embryo to continue generating it would be less ethical troublesome if you ask me but then again scientists usually do not try to find better paths, rather easier ones!