June 11, 2007

The pro-death lobby has been trying to persuade the public that only the use of embryonic stem cells has the possibility of curing certain diseases. The pro-life community has said “not so fast” because research suggests there may be other ways to get these cells without using aborted babies.

Now comes a front page story in the pro-death New York Times that confirms what pro-lifers have been saying. Researchers have found that skins cells from a mouse can be reprogrammed back to its embryonic state and then used to manufacture many of the body’s major tissues.

If the technique can be adapted to human cells, researchers could use a patient’s skin cells to generate new heart, liver or kidney cells that might be transplantable and would not be rejected by the patient’s immune system.

The New York Times editorial page and many of its columnists have been arguing that only embryonic stem cells will work. Will they now recant and allow researchers to pursue this more promising avenue so that the moral and ethical issue no longer applies? Probably not.

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.