Who needs fetal stem cells?

Doctor calls stem cell surgery on toddler revolutionary

Kyoto University Professor Shinya Yamanaka of Japan in April 2009 and John Gurdon of Britain in London Oct. 8, 2012. The two shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for the discovery that adult cells can be reprogrammed back into stem-cells which can turn into any kind of tissue and may one day repair damaged organs. CNS photo / Kyodo and Suzanne Plunkett, handout via Reuters.

The doctor who helped transplant a windpipe grown from a child's own stem cells said the procedure supports Catholic moral teaching while at the same time helping to "revolutionize medicine." Catholic News Agency has a story:

On April 9, Hannah Warren, age 2 and a half, underwent an intensive nine-hour surgery to install an artificial windpipe grown from her own bone marrow to correct a birth defect that left her unable to breathe, eat, swallow, or speak on her own.

Rather than using "life-destroying stem cells" Dr. Mark Holterman of Children's Hospital of Illinois, part of OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria, said the experimental procedure upholds the hospital's mission of providing for the sick with the "greatest care and love" while also respecting Church teaching on the sanctity of human life.

For full story see The B.C. Catholic website.