Stem cell research: immortality or a healthy old age?

Hubrecht Laboratory, Netherlands Institute for Developmental Biology and the Interuniversity Cardiology Institute of the Netherlands, Uppsalalaan 8, 3584 CT Utrecht, The Netherlands. christin@niob.knaw.nl

Stem cell research holds the promise of treatments for many disorders resulting from disease or trauma where one or at most a few cell types have been lost or do not function. In combination with tissue engineering, stem cells may represent the greatest contribution to contemporary medicine of the present century. Progress is however being hampered by the debate on the origin of stem cells, which can be derived from human embryos and some adult tissues. Politics, religious beliefs and the media have determined society's current perception of their relative value while the ethical antipathy towards embryonic stem cells, which require destruction of a human embryo for their derivation, has in many countries biased research towards adult stem cells. Many scientists believe this bias may be premature and basic research on both cell types is still required. The media has created confusion about the purpose of stem cell research: treating chronic ailments or striving for immortality. Here, the scientific state of the art on adult and embryonic stem cells is reviewed as a basis for a debate on whether research on embryonic stem cells is ethically acceptable.

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