Advances in ethical stem-cell research are being celebrated in the Feb. 28, 2008, edition of The New England Journal of Medicine.
"Recent studies have created a great deal of excitement," Dr. Douglas R. Higgs writes. "They show that fully differentiated somatic cells (such as skin fibroblasts) can be reprogrammed to make cells similar to embryonic stem cells."
In other words, adult cells can be induced to act like embryonic stem cells. Such cells have been used to treat sickle-cell anemia in mice and show promise for treating humans one day soon.
Higgs says hopes for embryonic stem cells have been "dampened by both technical and ethical problems."
He goes on to criticize human cloning: "Perhaps, not surprisingly, the technical difficulties and ethical complexities of this approach were always likely to render it impractical."
