Stem cells: Ethics before science

This year?s linkurl:Keystone meeting;http://www.keystonesymposia.org/Meetings/ViewMeetings.cfm?MeetingID=786 on stem cells -- surrounded by the dreamy mountains of Whistler, British Columbia -- started not with science, but with ethics. Specifically, the ethics of embryonic stem cell research, and what the scientists who study them need to remember. linkurl:Anne McLaren;http://www.cmgp.org.uk/research/people/mclaren_a.html of the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gordon Institute, Cambridge University, provided a basic overview of all of the ethical aspects to the work?a talk that lasted close to an hour. Some highlights: The "dishonesty" of unduly raising patients? hopes about the benefits of stem cells, whether it?s more or less ethical to create embryos versus using donated embryos, and research that has ethical impacts on society. A fascinating example of the latter: Creating gametes from pluripotent stem cells, perhaps enabling same sex couples to have a baby that is genetically from both parents, or a single parent to provide both egg and sperm. ("I would...