Today Science released the early publication of a major breakthrough in stem cell research. The South Korean researchers who last year created the first human stem cell through the use of somatic nuclear transfer have now made a tremendous leap forward. They have increased the efficiency of the use of cloning to produce stem cells by about 16 fold. This brings us much closer to the day when clinical trials with matched cells chosen to avoid rejection will take place. It is a major step forward.
We can soon expect to hear worries that this research takes us closer to human reproductive cloning. Such concerns are misguided. There are many steps between the creation of fertilized (or fused) embryo and a babysucceeding in improving efficiency to the blastocyst stage is impressive, but it gets scientists no where near the stage where reproductive cloning could be successfully carried out. Moreover, it is not clear that the techniques used to get to that stage are compatible with future development, since they are created to make it easier to derive stem cells (they are two dimensional). In short, there is no reason to believe that any of the 11 blastocysts that have been produced could ever have become babies, even researchers had wanted to produce them. And these researchers (including one scientist from the U.S.) have been clear that they would regard human reproductive cloning as unsafe, unethical, and illegal.
This does not mean there are no ethical issues in this research. Indeed there are several new challenges that it provides. Science was concerned enough about those issues that they have taken the unusual step of publishing the informed consent and IRB documents governing the research online. In addition, Mildred Cho and I were given the opportunity to address some of the concerns and challenges in a policy forum piece that has also just been published. An op ed summary of these issues will be coming out Friday in the San Jose Mercury News.
– David Magnus