The interest that human embryonic stem cells represent to researchers derives from the fact that they are capable of developing into virtually any cell of the body, given appropriate conditions; they are ‘pluripotent’. Human embryonic stem cells can be obtained by the in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedure. Embryonic stem cells can also be derived by removing the nucleus from a cell of a person’s body and placing it inside an ovum (egg cell) provided by a donor, and from which the nucleus has been removed. This nuclear transfer procedure—somatic cell nuclear Transfer (SCNT)—has become known as ‘therapeutic cloning’, as the resulting cloned human embryo is almost an identical clonal replica of the human subject from whom the somatic cell nucleus was taken. Stem cells can be generated from this cloned embryo, and those cells used as the source of specialised cells, which are unlikely to be rejected as foreign if they were to be used in the individual from whom they were derived.
If, on the other hand, the manufactured embryo were to be implanted into a uterus, it would be called ‘reproductive cloning’. It is this approach that was used to yield the now famous sheep Dolly. Human reproductive cloning is rejected entirely by scientists, as well as by numerous politicians, and is completely contraindicated for a number of reasons. Where legislation has been passed that permits therapeutic cloning, reproductive cloning has been unequivocally rejected.
Obviously, these approaches to deriving embryonic stem cells involve destruction of the embryo, and it is here that the major ethical issues arise. These issues are relevant to legislation on this matter by the governments of several countries, including Australia. They relate to concerns of a broad spectrum of the community, embracing virtually all the religions, and those of no religion at all.
Most media attention focuses on embryonic stem cells, and the urgent pressure to use them in medical treatment. The media gloss over an important distinction regarding stem cell research. One branch is embryonic stem cell research, which can only be conducted by using a developing embryo in a process that necessarily destroys it. The other is adult stem cell research, which makes use of the evidence indicating that virtually all tissues of the body contain a number of stem cells that are ‘multipotent’, that is, they can develop into several different types of adult cell. They can be used without the ethical