The latest news in the ongoing stem cell research debate comes out of a company from Worcester, Mass. (Advanced Cell Technology) that may have come up with a way to produce embryonic stem cells without destroying an embryo.

That is good news, provided the technique works safely.

It follows on earlier efforts to develop stem cells through a form of cloning of individual cells.

Both of these approaches show promise, and they might avoid the ethical battle that is now placing a major hold on publicly funded stem cell research in the United States.

But these alternatives also have their own technical, medical and ethical problems. For instance, the Advanced Cell Technology approach takes one cell from an eight-cell embryo, which then continues to grow.

Some scientists say they are not convinced that this approach is entirely safe for the developing embryo.

The technique that has shown the greatest promise is to take cells from an embryo that would otherwise be destroyed.

Make no mistake: If the United States holds back on such research, others will move ahead. That's the message from South Korea, where a researcher has announced plans to produce new stem cell lines and make them available to researchers and scientists worldwide.

This approach is anathema to those who see this as destroying life. That position must be respected, but must not be allowed to outweigh the tremendous medical benefits that surely will be derived from this research.

We don't have to look far to see the promise of stem cell research. Just last week in San Francisco, federal regulators approved what would be the first fetal stem cell transplant into human brains, according to news reports. These transplant recipients will be children suffering from Batten disease, a rare illness that leaves victims blind, speechless and paralyzed before killing them — children who now have hope.

Work on alternatives should go forward, but not at the expense of the technology that has proven itself to be the most valid. The United States should not be left behind.