Production of Pluripotent Stem Cells by Oocyte
Assisted Reprogramming
Ethics and Public Policy Center: Joint
Statement20 June, 2005
The following extract is drawn from the
primary document to illustrate ethical points that are of
significance to forming a judgement of conscience with respect to the
proposed method of producing pluripotent stem cells.
The list of endorsers appended to the primary
document includes 34 scholars from different disciplines and faiths.
Extract: . . .altered nuclear transfer (ANT) is a broad conceptual
proposal for producing pluripotent stem cells without creating and
destroying embryos. . . . we outline a research program for a form of ANT
that should allow us to produce pluripotent stem cells without creating or
destroying human embryos and without producing an entity that undergoes or
mimics embryonic development. The method of alteration here proposed (oocyte
assisted reprogramming) would immediately produce a cell . . .
Incapable of being or becoming an embryo . . . a pluripotent cell that could
be cultured to establish a pluripotent stem cell line. . .
. . . Human cloning has been proposed as a means of generating human
embryos whose pluripotent stem cells would be used in scientific and medical
research. . . . we propose to utilize the power of epigenetic reprogramming
in combination with controlled alterations in gene expression to
directly produce pluripotent cells using adult somatic nuclei, without
generating and subsequently destroying embryos. . . .