HAS RESEARCH CONCERNING HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS BEEN REALLY CARRIED OUT IN A TRUE SCIENTIFIC WAY?
Thomson indicated in his paper (1) and his testimony (2) about human embryonic stem cells that strategies to prevent immune rejection of the transplanted cells needed to be developed. These strategies could include banking ES cell lines with defined major histocompatibility complex backgrounds, or genetically manipulating ES cells to reduce or actively combat immune rejection. It was taken for granted that transplantation rules for embryonic stem cells should follow the usual rules governing tissue transplantation and be rejected if mismatching the recipient. Since the isolation of human embryonic stem cells occurred less than two years after the birth of Dolly, the first cloned sheep (5), human therapeutic cloning was proposed as the most convenient strategy to avoid rejection supposed inevitable if using stem cells coming from any surplus embryo. Then, another worldwide debate started: should human therapeutic cloning be authorized? While these hot debates were going on, scientists d
