William Hurbut has been the driving force behind alterned nuclear transfer (ANT)that seeks to create pluripotent stem cells through nuclear transfer technology without an embryo ever having come into being. The first animal tests have been tried and there is good indication that the technique might work, although this particular version might not be it.
Whether human life has intrinsic value simply because it is human is the question of the 21st Century, and is certainly germane to the therapeutic cloning and embryonic stem cell controversies. Some wish to wave it away. But the widespread coverage of this story and the ACT breakthrough mentioned in the last post, at least, show that the value of human life simply for being human remains an important part of this debate.
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