Big Stem Cell News

The top story in this morning's New York Times has this headline: Biologists Make Skin Cells Work Like Stem Cells. The new technique, when adapted to stem cells, sidesteps ethical concerns, as it has the advantages of using embryonic cells without destroying a human embryo to harvest them. The technique is said to be relatively easy, and repairing the body with its own cells is certainly superior to surgery or medication.

This is great news. Yet I seriously doubt anyone pursuing research that destroys human embryos will do an about-face. Does anyone even remember this 2005 announcement?