Scientists involved in embryonic stem cell research are now admitting that they have not achieved the advancements that were sold to the public. "Many of the technologies we hyped to the general public haven't worked yet," Celgene Corp. president Alan Lewis said Wednesday at a biotechnology trade show in Philadelphia.

James Thomson, the Wisconsin biologist who was the first to isolate embryonic stem cells also admits they have been oversold. [more from LifeNews]

At an international meeting of cloners and stem cell in San Francisco, even the most outspoken proponents of the technology concede they are years away from actual drugs based on stem cells.

Given the amount of hype and money that is being poured into ESC research, I find the news quite troubling. Individuals suffering from chronic diseases have been mislead into believing that a cure is around the corner in an effort to secure research funding. The voice of the suffering has been exploited to compel the public into supporting investigations that are speculative and unproven and that represent a significant departure from ethical standards that respect the sanctity of human life. Yet, no approved treatments have been obtained using embryonic stem cells and there are presently no therapeutic applications on the horizon.

However, the dismal track record and unattainable promises of ESC research is not the fundamental problem.

The fatal flaw of current ESC research is that scientists must "destroy" (a synonym for "kill") a human being to extract the stem cells they need. Emotionally based appeals are made to justify the practice by demeaning the unborn and undeveloped person and claiming an embryo is not as important as someone who has developed and is in need of the embryo’s parts. However, the mystical point in time that a human embryo develops into a human who cannot be sacrificed for science is unknown.

What is known to ESC researchers is that human embryos are fully human. This is not a controversial conclusion but one supported by contemporary human embryology and developmental biology.

Robert George and Patrick Lee, in their New Atlantis article Acorns and Embryos, explain:

Each of us developed by a gradual, unified and self-directed process from the embryonic into and through the fetal, infant, child and adolescent stages of human development, and into adulthood, with his or her determinateness, unity and identity fully intact.

... But human embryos are human beings, that is, complete, though immature, members of the human species. Embryos are human individuals at an early stage of their development, just as adolescents, toddlers, infants, and fetuses are human individuals at various developmental stages.

George and Lee argue,

We value human beings precisely because of the kind of entities they are…. Indeed, that is why we consider all human beings to be equal in basic dignity and human rights ...

Personhood is not an accidental characteristic, that is, a characteristic which one acquires at some point after he exists and may lose at another point. One is a human person by being a living member of the human community, a member of the human species.

• "There Must Be Another Way:" Breakthrough Stem Cell Scientist Tells His Story. - Dec 11, 2007
• Translation of "induced Pluripotent (Adult) Stem Cells" - Nov 20, 2007
• Nobel Prize for Adult Stem Cell Research? - Oct 08, 2007
• Hilllary Clinton wants federal tax dollars to pay for research on stem cells from cloned human embryos - Oct 05, 2007
• StemLifeLine pushing parents to use extra embryos to "protect the future" - Sep 11, 2007
• Embryonic Stem Cells Repair Human Heart? Not Hardly - Aug 27, 2007
• Lawsuit moves MI Gov. Granholm to remove embryonic stem cell petition from website - Aug 13, 2007
• Redefining the Human Embryo - Jul 04, 2007