In the new work, the team took skin cells -- some from Wood's arm and some from an anonymous Stemagen investor -- and fused them to eggs from women who were donating their eggs to help infertile women. About one-quarter of the resulting clones, or five in all, developed into five-day-old blastocysts...

"I have to admit, it's a very strange feeling. It is very difficult to look at an embryo and realize it is what you were a few decades ago. It is you, in a way."

Well, there is a future shock moment for you.

I'd like to know what folks on MemeStreams think about this, particularly from a bio-ethics perspective. This is a far cry from questions about federal funding for stem cell research. In this case human embryos were created for the purpose of research, and were subsequently destroyed.

Clearly, if you are opposed to abortion, you must also think this murder. In any event it raises the same sort of ethical question. At what point does a blastocyst turn into something that has civil rights?

I think these questions are going to get harder and harder to answer. I'll refrain from offering my own opinion here just yet.

Mature Human Embryos Created From Adult Skin Cells - washingtonpost.com