The National Institutes of Health issued rules under which the many university biologists it supports may start working with human embryonic stem cells. Biologists hope that through study of the cells they will learn the secrets of how the body develops as well as the means to patch aging tissues with fully youthful cells.
Opponents of abortion object to federal funds being used for the research because human embryos, potentially capable of life, are destroyed in the process of deriving the cells. In practice the cells come from excess frozen embryos due to be discarded by fertility clinics. Nicholas Wade