It's bullshit, but worthy bullshit and I hope it works
Quote of note:
His idea was a twist on the current technique for research cloning. Before implanting the DNA from a skin cell into an egg, scientists would turn off a gene that helps direct the formation of the trophectoderm, an outer layer of cells that is crucial in the first stages of development and which eventually forms the placenta. With this gene silenced, the trophectoderm does not form properly. All the cells eventually die, but scientists can still harvest embryonic-type stem cells from the mass, according to Dr. Felix Beck, a professor at the University of Leicester and one of the authors of a scientific paper in May that described how the gene affects the trophectoderm in mice.
"The embryo is forming," Hurlbut said. "And unless it forms itself properly, it is not an embryo."
New technique eyed in stem-cell debate
By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff | November 21, 2004
With the nation deadlocked over the morality of using human embryos for research, a member of the President's Council on Bioethics is quietly promoting a proposal that might allow scientists to create the equivalent of embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos, offering a potential path out of the controversy.
Dr. William Hurlbut, a Stanford bioethicist and staunch opponent of research on human embryos, has traveled the country developing and winning support for the idea in consultation with a small circle of scientists and conservative ethicists. The procedure, called altered nuclear transfer, would engineer a human egg that could generate cells with the full potential of embryonic stem cells, but without ever forming an actual embryo.
The technique has not been attempted with human cells, but biologists consider it feasible with today's technology. The larger question is whether the technique could overcome the strong ethical and religious opposition that has led to sharp limits on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell experiments and turned embryonic stem-cell research into a flashpoint in American politics.
So far, three critics of current methods for creating embryonic stem cells -- Archbishop William J. Levada of San Francisco, Robert George, a member of the president's bioethics council, and Nigel M. de S. Cameron, a leading intellectual in the evangelical movement -- have seen Hurlbut's proposal and said they believe it could offer a way around their moral objections. Hurlbut will present his idea to the bioethics council early next month.
A proposal acceptable to moral conservatives would mark the first major shift in the debate over human embryonic stem cells since President Bush issued his policy Aug. 9, 2001, barring federal funding for research on embryonic stem cells created after that date. Many scientists see the cells, which can become any tissue in the body, as a uniquely powerful tool for medical research and possibly curing diseases. But religious conservatives have staunchly opposed the work because it involves destroying 5-day-old embryos.
In a debate that has come to resemble the seemingly irreconcilable American divide over abortion, Hurlbut's proposal offers the tantalizing hope of a middle ground.
"In this country, it is almost as if we would rather argue than find a solution," Hurlbut said. "It would be so much better if we could find a way to produce these cells with a genuine social consensus behind them."
