Biologists Make Skin Cells Work Like Stem Cells

From the New York Times, on-line edition, front page:

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In a surprising advance that could sidestep the ethical debates surrounding stem cell biology, researchers have come much closer to a major goal of regenerative medicine, the conversion of a patient’s cells into specialized tissues that might replace those lost to disease.

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The new technique, developed by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University, depends on inserting just four genes into a skin cell. These accomplish the same reprogramming task as the egg does, or at least one that seems very similar.

The technique, if adaptable to human cells, is much easier to apply than nuclear transfer, would not involve the expensive and controversial use of human eggs, and should avoid all or almost all of the ethical criticism directed at the use of embryonic stem cells.

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It “raises no serious moral problem, because it creates embryoniclike stem cells without creating, harming or destroying human lives at any stage,” said Richard Doerflinger, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ spokesman on stem cell issues. In themselves, embryonic stem cells “have no moral status,” and the bishops’ objections to embryonic stem cell research rest solely on the fact that human embryos must be harmed or destroyed to obtain them, Mr. Doerflinger said.

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Haven't I been predicting for years that researchers of good heart and intent will find ways to cure diseases through non-embryonic stem cell research, and that they would find these ways sooner than anyone expected? And to ultimately more effectiveness? Politicians exploit the desperate and ill when they tell them the only hope for curing their diseases is through creating to kill embryos and other horrible research. They divert funding and attention from the ethical ways that actually will produce the better results and faster. I don't understand the almost desperate urge to hurt babies from the first moment of life that blinds people to better options that would actually better serve their healing.