I have to note that the difference between Embryonic Stem Cell therapies and Adult Stem Cell Therapies are that the ESC therapies are always years away while ASC therapies are here now. So when I read this promise to correct Macular Degeneration (in five years time) I wondered how many people would kill a human being to fix their eyes?

A revolutionary technique being developed by British scientists could cure blindness in millions of people around the world.

The first 45-minute operations could take place within five years and could be as commonplace as cataract surgery in a decade.

The improvement is likely to be great enough to transform lives, allowing the blind to regain the ability to carry out everyday tasks such as reading or driving.

…

The treatment centres on human embryonic stem cells grown in a laboratory. These are “blank” cells with the power to turn into different cell types and are used to create small patches identical to the cells damaged in the eyes of AMD [age-related macular degeneration] sufferers.

Stem cells are not ‘blanks’. They contain genetic code. They contained some human being’s genetic code who is now dead. If a DNA test used in courtrooms around the world was done on a stem cell it would show the cells were from a human being who had a father and a mother (or else was a clone). The DNA from ESC’s to build replacement cells, tissues, organs and limbs is that of some person who was killed for their DNA. It is not your eye cells being used. It is someone elses eye cells. The DNA test will prove this beyond any doubt.

The truth is anything that can be done from embryonic stem cells can be done using adult stem cells. If scientists would work the solutions on apes, even using embryonic stem cells, they could then transfer the genetic triggers to human adult stem cells and most likely get the same results. The same genes exist in both cells. It is only a question of turning them on to transform the stem cell into a specific cell type. Both ASC and ASC can do these transformations. The difference is you cannot get a patent from ASC genes – you can from ESC genes.

So, would you kill a human being to help you see again? Or would you demand science work the problem on animals, prove the process, then transform the process to adult stem cells. Ethics is a tough business – or at least it used to be. Now it just goes to the highest bidder with the patents.