Excerpt
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): And finally tonight, a major advance in stem cell work, but one that again raises ethical questions.
Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University were able to create embryonic stem cells through a cloned human embryo, a longtime goal, since such cells are capable of transforming into tissues and organs genetically identical to a patient who needs them.
Researchers took the DNA from a donor's unfertilized egg, then inserted mature skin cells containing the DNA of a patient. That led to the creation of an early-stage embryo called a blastocyst, a group of 50 to 100 cells. From that, scientists derived stem cells and then transformed them into heart cells.
The blastocyst was destroyed in the process and was never implanted in a human womb.
Rob Stein has been covering this story for NPR and joins us now.
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