One last point Scandal, because your last point of your post is grossly inaccurate. It is not that no other research organization can create fundable stem cell lines BUT ACT, because of the blastomere technique. That's inaccurate. Yes, ACT does not destroy the embryo, but the NIH policy, if you understood the case law related to the Sherley vs Sebelius case, does not currently make any such distinction.
Instead, the Guidelines make the distinction that research on ESC lines, is NOT research requiring the destruction of an embryo. Sherley's attorneys made the argument that all the stem cell lines that are allowed under the current definition of embryonic stem cell in the guidelines requires destruction of the embryo, and therefore they should not qualify because of Dickey-Wicker. However, the court disagreed that such a connection was necessary. First of all, the embryos from fertility clinics were not created for research, and second of all, the lines derived from the stem cells, are not derived from embryos created for research. But more importantly, the lines themselves are not embryos, so funding research using the stem cell lines, is not technically funding the creation of embryos for research. And the guidelines themselves ensure that the embryos are donated in conditions that are very carefully managed and disclosed to avoid a blurring of the line that would make the embryos a creation for research, for instance, by some desire to profit, for instance.
So the guidelines do not prohibit new stem cell lines from being created through methods that destoy the embryo. In fact, without the change to the NIH guidelines, that I discussed in my just previous posting, the only method to create new stem cell lines for research involves destruction of the embryo. But by including ACT's method, the NIH is allowing that there would be a reason and utility to fund cell lines derived by such a non-destructive method. And so, this is furthering the desire of most good persons to see a method that can be supported by just about everyone, without moral qualms or questions.
The embryonic stem cell registry, created by NIH, provides a means for the NIH to certify new stem cell lines, created by the traditional method, for use in NIH funded research. The primary focus is to ensure that the stem cell line creators followed the NIH Guidelines for moral creation of the line. Currently that NIH certification process does not allow ACT's method to create embryonic stem cells for NIH funded research, but hopefully soon, after the change goes into effect, it will.
So you really missed the point of most of the discussion and debate.
