By Patricia Zapor
WASHINGTON (CNS) — As Oregon scientists announced May 15 that they had successfully converted human skin cells into embryonic stem cells, the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities warned that the technique is morally troubling on many levels.
Scientists at the Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon National Primate Research Center announced that they had successfully reprogrammed human skin cells to become embryonic stem cells, which are capable of transforming into other types of cells that could replace those damaged by illness or injury.
Many news reports on the announcement referred to the research as human cloning, but the university’s release and a full report on the work in Cell magazine carefully avoided the term, except to say taking the work in the direction of reproductive cloning is unlikely.
The Oregon research team developed the unfertilized embryonic cells to seven days’ growth in a lab. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, who chairs the bishops’ committee, said the process created and destroyed more than 120 human embryos, which the church considers human life that must be protected.
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