Many Unanswered Questions
Photo: Robert Rathe
Two other scientific advances have also captured the attention of the research community as well as the general public. Last year, two research teams announced that they had isolated pluripotential stem cells—stem cells that can give rise to many different cell types—from human embryos and fetal germ cells. This followed the well-publicized cloning of the sheep, Dolly, and of mice from mature adult cells.
The serendipitous overlap of these newsworthy discoveries precipitated an international ethical storm that still rumbles on. In the United States, for example, public opposition to research with stem cells derived from human embryos threatens to prevent NIH-funded scientists from using such cells. The debate has forced many researchers to realize that they must be able to communicate effectively with an anxious public and its legislators about fundamental questions such as "When does human life begin?" "What does it mean to be human?" and "What is an embryo and when does it become a human being?"
Whether science can answer these complex questions is open to debate, and is not something that I will discuss further here. I do, however, want to address the fact that we need far more information before we can answer another fundamental question: How might we use stem cells in medicine?
