ABSTRACT
Developments during the past 10 years have brought stem cells to a place of prominence because of the potential that they have to serve as an invaluable tool for research, offering unique insights into areas of mammalian developmental biology that are not readily accessible to experimentation, and because they offer significant promise for cell-based therapies for degenerative diseases. Although embryonic stem (ES) cells were first isolated more than 25 years ago,1 it was only after the successful isolation of human ES cells from blastocyst embryos and embryonic germ (EG) cells,2 and the inherent ethical and moral controversy surrounding this technique, that they were elevated to the medical headlines.
