Adult stem cells

In the past couple of years the scientific, bioethical, and political communities have been as much in a spin about stem cells as they have about cloning. The reason for the excitement began with a report of the isolation and culturing of human embryonic stem (ES) cells in late 1998. This research, using a human IVF embryo, opened up exciting possibilities in cell therapies for the treatment of Parkinson‟s, Alzheimer‟s, diabetes and many other diseases. Even more exciting was the prospect that a cloned embryo could be produced and the ES cells extracted and used to treat the individual from whom the clone was made, thus avoiding problems with tissue rejection. This proposal was termed „therapeutic cloning‟, a label wholesome enough to ease the public‟s disquiet about cloning. After all, one can never have enough therapy.