This is really going to piss off the left

From The Washington Post:

Scientists have for the first time grown colonies of prized human embryonic stem cells using a technique that does not require the destruction of embryos, an advance that could significantly reshape the ethical and political debates that have long entangled the research.

The new work, described in today's issue of the journal Nature, shows that even a single cell plucked from an early human embryo can be coaxed to divide repeatedly in a laboratory dish and grow into a olony of stem cells, coveted for their potential to mend failing organs.

It is already common for fertility doctors to remove a single cell from a days-old embryo before transferring that embryo into a woman's womb -- part of a test to screen out embryos bearing genetic defects. Although the safety of the cell-removal process is still under study, there is no evidence that the procedure puts embryos at significant risk or that babies born from such "biopsied" embryos are abnormal in any way.

If scientists were to grow stem cell colonies from some of the single cells already being removed for genetic testing, scientists said, they could vastly increase the number of colonies for research without putting any embryos at added risk. Until now, researchers have isolated stem cells only from older embryos, which are
inevitably destroyed in the process.

"I hope this will solve the political impasse and allow scientists to move on," said Robert Lanza, who led the research at Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Worcester, Mass.

For those who believe that research on human embryonic stem cells offers the potential to cure a number of human diseases and may even offer the hope of growing whole replacement organs this is good news.

At least it is if that is their only concern.

For the bulk of the left-liberals, however, this is the worst possible news. To them embryonic stem cell research is only a means to serve the ultimate goal of devaluing human life.

Think of it. If human embryonic stem cell research offers the key to not only making Chris Reeve walk again, but to raising him from the dead to walk again, you have a powerful argument for going ahead with it. Even if you must destroy human life to do it.

If we can do the research without destroying life this robs the left of one of their most tempting inducements to regard human life as nothing unique or special.