Scientists in Kyoto, Japan, and researchers at the University of Wisconsin announced this week they have transformed human skin cells into embryonic-like stem cells.
Jennifer Lahl, national director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture, said it's yet another example showing that life-destroying embryonic stem-cell research is unnecessary.
"We don't have to create embryos. We don't have to clone embryos. We don't have to destroy human embryos," she told Family News in Focus.
Research that uses embryonic stem cells and cloning techniques has been fraught with scientific and ethical difficulties.
David Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences at the Family Research Council, said the breakthrough decreases the credibility of those who are pushing for embryonic stem-cell research and human cloning.
"You're still going to get a few folks that will be resistant to this new idea, even though we recently heard that Ian Wilmut, the cloner of Dolly (the sheep), turned his back on this idea of cloning at all in favor of this new technique."
The discovery is also a triumph for President Bush and pro-life advocates who have called for scientific advancement to be kept within ethical boundaries. Wesley J. Smith of the Discovery Institute says that the Bush policy has proven results.
"It was his policy of embryonic stem cell funding restrictions that I think induced scientists to find an ethical way around the problem which Bush has been calling for all along," he said, "now they appear to have succeeded."
