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Nature Reviews Genetics 8, 480–485 (1 June 2007) | doi:10.1038/nrg2066

Can we develop ethically universal embryonic stem-cell lines?

Ronald M Green

Human embryonic stem-cell (hESC) research faces opposition from those who object to the destruction of human embryos. Over the past few years, a series of new approaches have been proposed for deriving hESC lines without injuring a living embryo. Each of these presents scientific challenges and raises ethical and political questions. Do any of these methods have the potential to provide a source of hESCs that will be acceptable to those who oppose the current approaches?