Are There Alternatives for Embryonic Stem Cells?

After many researches done by separate scientific teams from both Wisconsin and Japan, scientist finally found a way to turn skin cells into an alternative for embryonic stem cells (Kolata, 2007). The newly developed way, according to Kolata (2007), no longer requires the need to kill live embryos in order to get stem cells. The new way simply requires scientists to add four different types of genes into the skin cells in order to “erase” its original “program” (Kolata, 2007). However, according to some (Kolata, 2007), there are disadvantages to this new method. First of all, even though the blank skin cells have the same effect as stem cells, they are still somewhat dangerous. Also, one of the four genes that serve as an eraser for the skin cells’ chromosomes is a cancer gene, and thus renders it very risky. On the other hand, according to Kolata (2007), this newly developed way removes the question of morality, since scientists no longer need to kill embryos to obtain stem cells. Also, the body will not reject the new blank skin cell (Kolata, 2007). According to Kolata (2007), the new name for the blank skin cells is “induced pluripotent stem cells”. The word “pluripotent” means being able to become other cells (Kolata, 2007). However, according to some (Kolata, 2007), there are still no guarantees that the new method will work better than actually using stem cells, so using human embryos to get stem cells is still better for now.