Politically Correct Human Embryonic Stem Cells?

摘要

to the editor: In his Perspective article on embryonic stem cells, Solter (Dec. 1 issue)1 comments on our experiments2 providing proof of principle for altered nuclear transfer in mice. Altered nuclear transfer was previously proposed by Hurl-but3 in an attempt to solve some of the ethical objections surrounding nuclear cloning for the generation of patient-specific embryonic stem cells. Solter contends that the mouse experiment was a "waste of time" because the validity of altered nuclear transfer could never be verified in human embryos. On the contrary, we believe our experiments contributed substantial scientific data to inform the public debate surrounding a contentious scientific issue.