AFTER months of soul-searching, the US National Institutes of Health has set
out guidelines that will allow researchers to apply for public funds to work
with stem cells derived from human embryos. Publicly funded researchers will at
last be able to join those in industry who are developing ways to grow new
tissue and organs for transplant, from patients’ own tissue or from
“off-the-shelf” tissue banks.
Embryonic stem cells are a type of primordial cell that can be coaxed to grow
into any other type of cell. Many oppose their use because they must initially
be harvested from an embryo,…
