Cultivating Policy from Cell Types

For better or worse, stem cell science has become inextricably married to stem cell politics. Policymakers who oppose public financing of embryonic stem cells have used recent adult stem cell findings to argue for a dismissal of the NIH stem cell guidelines (see "On the Brink," page 1). The guidelines, finalized last summer during the Clinton administration, call for funding the use, but not derivation, of human embryonic stem cells (ESCs); the pro-life Bush administration appears ready to ban t

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"I don't think you could find anybody in this field who thinks you should abandon stem cell or embryonic research--yet," comments adult stem cell researcher Diane Krause, an assistant professor of laboratory medicine and pathology at the Yale University School of Medicine. "We all agree that we'd rather not have to deal with the ethical quagmire. But at this point we'll just be hurting our ability to progress if we stop the research."

"There will be questions you can address with adult stem cells, and questions you address with ES cells. They complement each other," says James Thomson, a developmental biologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the leader of one of two groups who were the first to culture human ESCs.2 "And, if you do both, both fields will actually go much faster." Right now, says Thomson, the adult versus embryonic stem cell "debate" is political rather than ...

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