California's Stem Cell Agency – Myths and Misconceptions …

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There is no shortage of myths and misconceptions when it comes to stem cell research and regenerative medicine. Here we address the most common concerns.

If you have more questions that aren't addressed here, please visit our other Stem Cell FAQ pages.

Is CIRM-funded stem cell research carried out ethically? Where do the embryos come from to create stem cell lines? I'm opposed to abortion. Can embryonic stem cell lines come from aborted fetuses? Does creating stem cell lines destroy the embryo? Are adult stem cells as goodor betterthan embryonic stem cells? Don't iPS cells eliminate the need to use embryos in stem cell research? Can't stem cell research lead to human cloning?

Stem cell research, like field within biomedicne, poses social and ethical concerns. CIRM, as well as the broader research community, takes these seriously.

As a state funding body, CIRM has comprehensive policies to govern research, similar to our national counterpart, the National Institutes of Health. CIRM-funded researchers must comply with a comprehensive set of regulations that have been carefully developed and are in accordance with national and international standards.

These regulations were among the first formal policies governing the conduct of stem cell research and are in accordance with recommendations from the National Academies and from the International Society for Stem Cell Research. CIRMs Standards Working Group meets regularly to consider new ethical challenges as the science progresses and to revise standards to reflect the current state of the research.

Find out More:

CIRM regulations National Academies of Science guidelines International Society for Stem Cell Research guidelines National Academies of Science podcast about guidelines for embryonic stem cell research More about CIRM-grantee ethics training (4:03)

All the human embryonic stem cell lines currently in use come from four to five day-old embryos left over from in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures. In IVF, researchers mix a man's sperm and a woman's eggs together in a lab dish. Some of those eggs will become fertilized. At about five days the egg has divided to become a hollow ball of roughly 100 cells called a blastocyst which is smaller than the size of the dot over an i. It is these very early embryos that are implanted into the woman in the hopes that she becomes pregnant.

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California's Stem Cell Agency - Myths and Misconceptions ...