Posted on: Thursday, December 19, 2002

EDITORIAL
Stanford stem cell project a bold move

Word that Stanford University has launched a bold new initiative in stem cell research has set off the usual — and unnecessary — controversy over human cloning.

Stanford's project, financed through a seed grant of $12 million from an anonymous donor, aims at — for want of a better word — "cloning" stem cells that can be grown into human organs and tissue.

Work on human stem cells, which are usually taken from embryos, has been severely restricted under rules laid down by the Bush administration. President Bush did authorize continued research on an estimated 64 stem cell lines, but only a handful of those are actually available and useful to researchers.

The Stanford project proposes to develop numerous new stem cell lines, not by taking them from embryos, but by cloning them.

This technology could, in theory, lead to the cloning of human embryos, but that is not the purpose of the research. A stem cell is not an embryo; it is not fertilized.

California law allows "therapeutic" cloning, while it bans reproductive cloning. The Stanford work goes forward under this sensible legal regime.

The medical possibilities of stem cells are enormous. The work at Stanford, and other similar projects, offers hope that this will be realized without having to deal with the moral and ethical issues involved in harvesting cells from human embryos.