A possible breakthrough on stem cells

From The New York Times:

In a surprising advance that could sidestep the ethical debates surrounding stem cell biology, researchers have come much closer to a major goal of regenerative medicine, the conversion of a patient’s cells into specialized tissues that might replace those lost to disease.

The advance is an easy-to-use technique for reprogramming a skin cell of a mouse back to the embryonic state. Embryonic cells can be induced in the laboratory to develop into many of the body’s major tissues.

If the technique can be adapted to human cells, researchers could use a patient’s skin cells to generate new heart, liver or kidney cells that might be transplantable and would not be rejected by the patient’s immune system. But scientists say they cannot predict when they can overcome the considerable problems in adapting the method to human cells.

This is really going to piss off the embryonic stem cell crowd because for them it was never about curing disease and easing human suffering. Embryonic stem cell research for them was all about dehumanizing the unborn.

The abortion debate has been shifting toward the pro-life side for at least the last 15 years. A majority of the public now believes that an unborn child is a human being and a majority will now accept restrictions on abortion. This is a major turnaround from the 1970s when nearly three quarters of the population would not support any restrictions whatsoever.

The pro-abortion forces know this and are worried. If opinion continues to move in the direction which it has been going it will not be too many more years before the people will insist on significant restrictions on abortion. Both the feminists who support unrestricted abortion on demand out of principle and the abortion industry which makes billions of dollars from the procedure are desperate to turn around the debate.

The best method they have found to date is the hope that embryonic stem cell research will lead to cures for a large number of human ailments. They have been so successful at building up public expectations for stem cell cures that a majority of people in the US now believe that stem cells hold out hope for people who suffer from Parkinson's Disease, even though researchers have explained over and over that Parkinson's is not the kind of condition for which stem cell research holds any hope of a treatment at all.

If it becomes possible to turn a person's own skin cells into stem cells and then grow replacement tissue, or even whole organs, the need for embryonic stem cells will evaporate and the pro-abortion ghouls will have to look elsewhere for a rug to pull over the public's eyes.