Stem cells isolated from umbilical cord blood have emerged as an ethical and safe alternative to embryonic stem cells.
In today's Yahoo New, an article about a South Korean woman with spinal cord injury has been able to walk after 20 years. She still required a support device, but was able to get out of her wheelchair and take a few steps. This is truly an important milestone in stem cell research since it was cord blood from which the stem cells used in her therapy were obtained.
"Technical difficulties exist in isolating stem cells from frozen umbilical cord blood, finding cells with genes matching those of the recipient and selecting the right place of the body to deliver the cells," said Han Hoon, president of Histostem, a government-backed umbilical cord blood bank in Seoul.
Ethical considerations have kept me from unequivocally endorsing embryonic stem cell research. Although the field offers some promise of mitigating many human ills, the destruction of an embryo troubles me. In addition, everything I have read on the subject reports embryonic stem cells have a tendency to form tumors when injected into animals or human beings.
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I've also heard that. I read that one of the biggest problems they are having with embryonic stem cell researh is that a lot of the cells that grow are cancer cells.
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