One of my best friends is a 13 year survivor of a lethal form of cancer. She is Canadian and received the stem cells of a man in Germany. When her DNA is tested, oddly, she has a Y chromosome, which I find fascinating. She was able to meet her donor a few years ago, which shocked me because I thought stems cells only came from embryos but in fact, hers came from his bone marrow.

There are currently over 7,000 clinical trials in stem cell research...you won't be surprised to learn that many of them are in China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

My father also received this treatment, but unfortunately, did not live. I believe Carl Sagan also received it and did live for about a year longer.

We are just now seeing stem cells being used to treat knee and spinal injuries as well...there are also numerous clinical trials on stem cells being used to treat ED...

I will see if I can find the article you referenced this weekend in my files...as you might have suspected, this is a subject that I am interested in.

I am going to say that your fears as listed below have a long way to go as the research is somewhat infantile in the applications moving forward to the degree of making man immortal...

You are correct that ethical issues still have to be dealt with...but fear should not be a reason to stop the exploration if the benefits can help those who are wheelchair bound, living with diseases such as MS, etc.

My understanding on stem cell research (which isn't so contraversial here) is that the positive effects are not long lasting.

If they are helping, I don't care where the stem cells come from. It is just tissue.

Not able to help but that article sounds so very interesting.