Researcher: Skin cells offer ethical alternative to embryos

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By TIMBERLY ROSS / The Associated Press

OMAHA — A human genome expert says people who oppose embryonic stem cell research have an ethical alternative in skin cells.

“Even those who are most troubled by this science can find this morally justifiable,” said Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.

Researchers studying embryonic stem cells in hopes of developing cures to diseases have come under fire because isolating the cells destroys embryos. Opponents in Nebraska and elsewhere believe embryos are the starting point of human life, and that destroying them is immoral.

Research using adult and umbilical stem cells has not been controversial because those cells are not derived from embryos.

Collins, who said his comments reflected his own beliefs and not those of institute or the government, was referring to a recent breakthrough that showed stem cells from human skin can be made to act like embryonic stem cells.

There are “less moral problems and more therapeutic promise” using skin cells, said Collins, who spoke in advance of a Wednesday lecture on faith and science at an Omaha church.

But, he added, research using embryonic stem cells should continue as a way to learn more about how stem cells work.

His remarks echoed the opinion of researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center who are challenging a proposed Nebraska law that would ban reproductive cloning and the creation of embryos for stem cell research using a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer. The bill was introduced last year in the Legislature and is expected to be revisited this session.

Chip Maxwell, director of the Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research, said that he agreed with Collins that the advancement using skin cells is a morally acceptable alternative.

But he disagreed that research using embryos should continue.

“Cloning’s time has come and gone,” Maxwell said.

Most embryos used in U.S. research are left over from in vitro fertilization — where a woman’s eggs are fertilized outside the womb and the resulting embryos are implanted in the uterus. If the embryos are not implanted, they are typically destroyed.

Embryonic stem cells are valued for their ability to morph into any of the cell types of the body. But scientists say skin cells may also be able to do that as well.