NEW YORK — Scientists have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.Congrats to the scientists who looked for a better way to succeed with stem cells without having to kill kids to do it.
Laboratory teams on two continents report success in a pair of landmark papers released Tuesday. It's a neck-and-neck finish to a race that made headlines five months ago, when scientists announced that the feat had been accomplished in mice.
The "direct reprogramming" technique avoids the swarm of ethical, political and practical obstacles that have stymied attempts to produce human stem cells by cloning embryos.
Embryonic stem cells were sure to be a major wedge issue in the 2008 election. You can bet the Dems had already lined up Michael J. Fox for some more jerky commercials telling us that embryonic stem cells were his only hope and Republicans want to kill him. The news today may take the air out of that argument.
With the increasing good news coming from Iraq and today's news on stem cells, the Dems are quickly losing their favorite electoral wedge issues.
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