ESC and Gametes

An interesting article from Science Daily.

"And yet deleting or increasing the expression of genes in the womb to understand why is both impossible and unethical."

Good thing it's impossible (for now), because we know ethics is no barrier for ESC researchers.

"Humans have a unique reproductive system"

That's an interesting point in passing. I thought we were like all the other animals...

I'd really like to know what they believe is ethical or unethical. Because the details of their experiment are exactly what they just said would be unethical "in the womb". As if, being translated 3 feet to the left suddenly makes what they're doing ethical.

• "In the current study, the researchers treated human embryonic stem cells with proteins known to stimulate germ cell formation" (emphasis added)
  
• "They then used a technique called RNA silencing to examine how blocking the expression of each of three DAZ family members in the embryonic stem cells affected germ cell development" (emphasis added)
  

This is not a treatment for human disease (which is the most common defense of ESC). This is a blind experiment - let's see what happens. It's not the first time.