When business realizes that adult stem cells and umbilical cord stem cells can be manipulated, banked, and turned into cells needed by whole classes of genetically similar patients (with banks of cell lines matched generically to whole groups of similar genetic characteristics), THEN the cannibalistic zeal will abate and stem cell therapies will become the miracle hoped for. God will not bless cannibalizing embryo-aged humans, but He will bless honest work that defers to moral/ethical behavior.
Adult stem cells are great for most clinical practices but they tell us precious little about most complex diseases. Studying an adult stem cell is like trying to decipher the history of Germany by looking at its automobiles. We'll need more than a few cells to solve the problem.
I am currently doing research in this field. I'm not much a credible source being that my one and only project is far from complete. It may be possible to generate a computer graphical model for most stages of cell growth, from as early as the blastula stage (perhaps earlier). Unfortunately this doesn’t work all that well as it stands, the instruments are not very accurate and many of them don't have integrated screening. Although it would be extremely difficult to map out all the differential markers and cytokines as they occur in a developing human, we may be able to predict and demarcate them using a precise mathematical formula. It may end up being a type of equilibrium matrix equation. To give you an idea of what I have seen so far, we can locate such things as the contact surfaces of the ECM (Extra cellular matrix), integrins, E-cadherin in Epithelial cells, detect the secretion of protease (causes the breakdown of the basal membrane), find patterns in collagen bindings, and a few dozen other things.
The problem is that we can’t relate many of these external activities to each other or relate external activities to internal activities, we have to choose what to look for: the formulas used have very similar experimental roles to that of the standard wave/particle model of quantum mechanics only with more definitive variables. I am struggling with this immensely but what harm can it do to try? If this emerges soon, the use of embryonic stem cells would be rendered completely unnessecary and this otherwise expensive procedure would become accessible to all scientists. This may be a shot in the dark but those patients aren't getting any younger.