Alternatives to SCNT or cloning for research

There are alternative to SCNT or cloning to produce embryonic stem cells.  I thought I would try to elucidate two that are gaining popularity.  The first would obtain embryonic stem cells by embryo biopsy.  In embryo biopsy, a embryo, most likely produced through IVF, would have a stem cell removed at the blastocyst stage.  Ideally, the embryo would remain intact and continue to grow, unlike other methods for extracting embryonic stem cells that destroy the embryo.  This technique is currently being used from Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) to screen IVF for genetic disorders before implantation.  Setting the ethical implication of IVF aside, the Catholic Church finds embryo biopsy for retrieval of embryonic stem cells unethical.  The National Catholic Bioethics Center prepared the following statement on embryo biopsy:

 It was recently reported in the journal Nature (published online October 16, 2005) that the technique of single-cell embryo biopsy was used to obtain embryonic stem cells from mice without destroying the embryos. Several embryonic stem cell lines were successfully developed from the originating cells, and the biopsied embryos progressed to term. While the attempt to obtain embryonic-like stem cells for the purpose of establishing embryonic stem cell lines without destroying embryos is in principle morally laudable, any procedure that places at risk the health and life of a human embryo for purposes that do not directly benefit the embryo is morally unacceptable.

This moral standard is made clear by the teaching of Donum vitae issued by the Holy See in 1987: "No objective, even though noble in itself, such as a foreseeable advantage to science, to other human beings or to society, can in any way justify experimentation on living human embryos or foetuses, whether viable or not, either inside or outside the mother's womb" (I, 4). Furthermore, whether for research or reproductive purposes, it is morally objectionable and beneath human dignity to engender human life through in vitro fertilization or other procedures which replace the marital act and which place the embryo in a vulnerable position and subject to the willful choices of others even as it comes into being.

Essentially, embryo biopsy is unethical because it puts the life of the embryo at risk with no corresponding benefit to that embryo.

The other technique is called altered nuclear transfer (ANT).  I have written on ANT before.  Here is a excellent interview with Dr. William Hurlbut who came up with the idea for ANT.  Many Catholic bioethicists and scientists have endorsed ANT, while some insist it is as unethical as cloning.  The Catholic Church as of yet has no official stance.  ANT sounds good, and while I applaud Dr. Hurlbut for his efforts to create a compromise, I am not sold.  My fear is that ANT simply produces a genetically crippled human being that cannot grow into a fetus.  ANT also requires human eggs just like SCNT and the ethics surrounding the demand for eggs has already brought down the Dr. Hwang and the South Korean World Stem Cell Hub.  Somehow ethicists who brought up the egg issue in response to SCNT have conveniently forgotten their objections when faced with ANT.  I still feel that pursuing research adult stem cells should be our primary focus, especially finding a way to reprogram the adult stem cell back to a pluripotent state with out the use of an egg or creation of anything remotely like an embryo.