Ian Wilmut, the scientist who cloned Dolly the sheep, is abandoning embryonic stem cell research, finally admitting it does NOT work.
Embryonic stem cell research, also called nuclear transfer and therapeutic cloning research, requires destroying the embryos.
According to the Associated Press, “Tens of millions of dollars have been spent worldwide on therapeutic cloning research in the past decade, but nobody has made it work.” Embryonic stem cell research has only caused cancers in humans.
Even Dolly and a few cats cloned had numerous medical problems, premature aging and premature death.
Wilmut told London’s Daily Telegraph, “I decided a few weeks ago not to pursue nuclear transfer.” He will be researching a method inspired by Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University.
Wilmut says that method does not require human eggs or the destruction of human embryos, which, he told reporters, many people are against.
According to AP that has “become a major stumbling block for funding and regulating research.”
It is “easier to accept socially,” Wilmut says.
The new method, called fibroblasts, slips four genes into mouse skin cells. According to AP, the altered cells behave similarly to embryonic stem cells.
Adult stem cell research has been far more successful but has been overshadowed by advertising and political campaigns in support of embryonic stem cell research.
Related research, which is also successful and not only used in the lab but also in human trials, is pig cell research. Scientists and medical doctors have successfully used pig cells as a solvable scaffolding for a patient’s own human cells to grow and replace organs and organ parts such as bladder, heart valves and wind pipes.
The horizon looks just a bit brighter today as Wilmut abandons embryonic stem cell research, opening the door for more scientists to admit it does not work and for the gratuitous slaying of embryonic human life to stop.
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