Ethical AND medical flaw of stem cells from embryos

Treatments using stem cells from embryos are flawed on medical as well as ethical grounds, leading scientists claimed yesterday.

Research on the use of such cells to provide a 'repair kit for the body' has been controversial as their harvesting typically results in the death of the embryo.

Yesterday experts said the potential benefits of embryonic stem cell treatments have also been overhyped and that work on adult stem cells would yield results much more quickly.

Stem cells plucked from an embryo in the first days of life are 'master cells', capable of turning into different types of cell and tissue.

Some have claimed they offer hope of generating treatments for conditions from Alzheimer's to heart disease. Others argue that it is wrong to sacrifice human life to further medical research.

Although stem cells also exist in the adult body, they are seen as less versatile. But a panel of stem cell experts told a House of Lords seminar organised by the Christian charity Care yesterday that work on adult cells is better both medically and ethically.

The scientists said that stem cells found in the adult body, where they repair damaged tissue naturally, are more suited to medicine than cells found in the embryo which are programmed to multiply quickly, rather than repair.

Bristol University neuroscientist Professor Neil Scolding said that using a patient's own stem cells, such as those found in the bone marrow, to treat disease would overcome the problems of rejection associated with using cells from an unrelated embryo.

However, Dr Stephen Minger, who is using embryonic stem cells to research neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's, said it was 'ludicrous' to believe it was an 'either/or' situation. Dr Minger, who is based at King's College, London, said researchers should focus on using the best cell type for the disease they are working on.