The use of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in research is of course highly controversial, raising ethical questions that for many people amount to serious dilemmas. In our April editorial we didn’t address the moral questions at all, but criticized recent efforts to discredit hESC research.
We’ve received two letters chiding us for the editorial. Though we can’t publish these letters in Nature Neuroscience, we are happy to discuss the matter on Action Potential. We invite the authors of the two letters to join us on the blog, and everyone else of course is also welcome to chip in.
Here are the links to the editorial, and the two pieces we discussed as examples for the new trick of spinning stem cell science against stem cell science. All are available for free:
Nature Neuroscience April 2007 editorial
Maureen L. Condic, “What We Know About Embryonic Stem Cells”, First Things, January 2007