December 2nd, 2004
On Recent Korean Research
Over at Reason Online, Ronald Bailey offers his thoughts on the stem cell paralysis therapy recently trialed in South Korea. Many observers are cautious: "I would be very skeptical of drawing any conclusions from one case with no [experimental] controls." So we take a wait and see attitude while encouraging research: "It may well turn out that adult stem cells are good treatments for certain diseases, umbilical cord stem cells work best for others, and embryonic stem cells are better at curing still different maladies. Contrary to the claims of bioconservatives, it is not either adult and umbilical cord stem cells or embryonic ones; for the sake of millions of suffering patients, it's necessary to forge ahead on all three fronts."