While I'm following up on items mentioned at the Longevity Meme, here is another one you (with thanks to Chris Mooney for pointing it out). This post goes into more detail on the science - what little we know of it at least - behind the latest Bioethics Council mutterings.
The first proposal might not yield any stem cells at all. If it did produce stem cells, they would probably be seriously defective.The second proposal would probably yield only defective cells. Moreover, it looks like a solution to the problem only given a hokey and implausible view of what counts as an embryo.
So, alas, neither looks like a real solution.
Go and read the whole thing - there's a lot more leading up to that conclusion. I think my initial take in the Longevity Meme post was accurate; it's a fuss over abitrary definitions and bioethicists doing what they do best - trying to find ways to slow down the advance of medicine. The only problem here is that research in this field is neither free enough nor fast enough for those who are suffering and dying from conditions that could soon be treated.