Ethical Stem Cell Lines Pt II

Last week in my post Ethical Stem Cell Lines I pointed out that the researchers who did the study actually ended up destroying all of the embryos.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed. Scientists defend "ethical" stem cell experiment

"You made our job a lot tougher," said [Sen. Arlen] Specter

From what I can glean from the media's retarded coverage of this (well this article is a little better: 'Ethical' stem-cell paper under attack), the researchers merely showed that the concept of creating stem cells without destroying the embryo was possible. Knowing already that you can take a cell from an embryo without killing it, as is done regularly in "preimplantation genetic diagnosis" (where the embryo is screened for genetic diseases), the researchers took two "so as not to be wasteful", which does kill the embryo.

The researchers seem genuinely baffled:

"This technique has been used throughout the world for years and years," retorted Lanza. "Everything I said is absolutely correct and accurate."

"It is not fair. It is not right," Lanza said.

I can't tell, without reading the paper, who is to blame for distorting this. Nature magazine claims responsibility for some of the exaggeration, but the researchers themselves put the misleading claim in their paper:

"What we have done, for the first time, is to actually create human embryonic stem cells without destroying the embryo itself."

Again: D'oh!