In 2006, a technique pioneered by Nobel Prize-winning Japanese
scientist Shinya Yamanaka all but rendered embryonic stem cells obsolete. He
discovered a way to induce pluripotency, causing adult cells to mimic embryonic
stem cells. His method has since been developed to the point where researchers
at Massachusetts General Hospital used it to grow a genetically-compatible,
beating human heart from a patient’s skin cells!
This method is actually superior to the embryonic method, because it
eliminates the risk of rejection. The freshly-grown tissue from adult stem cells
is, quite literally, the patient’s own. All of this led Christopher White at
Crux to declare the stem cell controversy effectively over. President Bush was
right, White argues, and so were the legions of pro-life activists who supported
alternatives to embryo-destructive research. The stem cell debate didn’t just
fizzle out. On an important level, it was soundly won by those who insisted that
medical science could advance without turning human life at its earliest stages
into a disposable commodity. Breakpoint. John
Stonestreet.
