Weissman, et. al., are using already doomed babies and babies with a deadly disease for the same reason - and to advance that reason - that they give to use frozen embryos: "they are/were going to die, anyway."
It is never right to to evil to good. We all know this, and it is the very basic knowledge that drives the choice of this particular experiment: it's a test case to prove that people in the US will give in, as they did on IVF, abortion, and "assisted suicide," out of concern for visible victims.
Way back in 2003, we knew that human umbilical cord cells functioned to repair spinal cord injury. Weissman knew.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/06/030617081312.htm
I agree with aposiopetic's irritation with the lack of concern and uproar.
How much will we put up with before we say "Enough!"
The use of fetal cells from abortions is purely unnecessary.
From this mongth's Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, more on the promise of HUCB stem cells in repair of neural disorders:
http://www.annalsnyas.org/cgi/content/full/1049/1/67
Abstract
Human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) is now considered a valuable source for stem cell-based therapies. HUCB cells are enriched for stem cells that have the potential to initiate and maintain tissue repair. This potential is especially attractive in neural diseases for which no current cure is available. Furthermore, HUCB cells are easily available and less immunogenic compared to other sources for stem cell therapy such as bone marrow. Accordingly, the number of cord blood transplants has doubled in the last year alone, especially in the pediatric population. The therapeutic potential of HUCB cells may be attributed to inherent ability of stem cell populations to replace damaged tissues. Alternatively, various cell types within the graft may promote neural repair by delivering neural protection and secretion of neurotrophic factors. In this review, we evaluate the preclinical studies in which HUCB was applied for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and for traumatic and ischemic brain damage. We discuss how transplantation of HUCB cells affects these disorders and we present recent clinical studies with promising outcome.