ether these claims are totally true, totally false, or something in-between, the fact remains that for many people embryonic stem cell research is ethically and morally unacceptable. Often they point to alternatives to embryonic stem cell research which also hold great promise for curing diseases and repairing injury. The purpose of this paper is to examine some of these alternatives.
The National Institutes of Health (2004: 1-15) states that there are many alternatives to embryonic stem cell research which show great promise. One of these alternatives consists of stem cells with embryonic characteristics that are taken from umbilical cord blood (UCB). Indeed, McGuckin and associates (2005: 245-255) calls UCB the largest untouched stem cell source, with advantages of naive immune status and relatively unshortened telomere length.
McGuckin and associates (2005: 245) state that they have produced, from UCB, cells expressing embryonic stem cell markers, which t
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