The emrbyonic stem cell research is fast falling behind adult stem cell therapies now coming out. Adult stem cells treatments are being used on patients with paralysis and seeing results (see comments). Conversely, embryonic stem cells have seen cysts and out of control growth when applied, and now it seems one of the few and far between breakthroughs in this fast receding field of research has some ‘quality‘ problems:

New questions have arisen over a human stem cell experiment that was hailed as a tremendous advance when it was announced in May.

Hwang Woo Suk, the South Korean researcher whose laboratory performed the experiment, told the journal Science yesterday that he was correcting some of the photographs that appeared as an online supplement to an article reporting a highly efficient recipe for producing human embryos through cloning, and then extracting their stem cells.

His co-author, Gerald P. Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh, said through a spokeswoman that Dr. Hwang had not informed him of the problem and that he had asked the university’s Office of Research Integrity to conduct an inquiry.

Snake oil. That is what embryonic stem cell research was sold to unsuspecting people in dire need of honest answers. It is criminal how the media has tilted this debate on emotion and politics instead of science and fact.

Dr. Hwang said he had converted the adult cells of 11 patients suffering from various diseases into embryonic form, in each case by transferring the nucleus of an adult cell into an unfertilized human egg. Scientists hope that tissues developed from such embryonic cells could be used to treat a wide range of serious diseases.

Folks, what these Frankensteins did was create a young human clone of the adult, and then sacrifice it for its stem cells. I know most of you hated biology, but some of us stuck with it and I am being honest when I tell you this. ‘Embryo’ is a stage of life. It equivalent to ‘baby’ and ‘adult’. It does not define the form of life. Humans are a form of life, each of which goes through the stages of life. Therefore an embryo is a young human being. And no scientist with a grain of integrity will tell you differently.

But the researchers were able to set a price for a human life. The price they paid for the egg (required to create the human clone from) was $1400. A real bargain.