IN A reversal of fortune for biomedical researchers in the US, President Bush
announced last week that he will allow federal funding for limited research on
stem cells taken from human embryos.
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) have the ability to develop into any type of cell
in the body, something scientists hope will allow them to grow replacement
tissues for transplants, and treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and
diabetes. The US government will now support research on ESCs, but only ones
from existing cultures.
In Britain, it is legal to extract ESCs from discarded IVF embryos and use
them…
