There has been a very exciting development in the field of adult stem-cell research. In two major independent studies in 2007, in Wisconsin and Japan, researchers discovered a way to reprogram adult stem cells taken from a patient's own body and turn them back to the embryonic state with surprising ease.

This discovery, according to many scientists, is the most significant breakthrough in 25 years, more significant than the cloning of Dolly the sheep. Professor Ian Wilmut, who cloned Dolly, stated, "Direct programming is extremely exciting and astonishing and 100 times more interesting than cloning." He will abandon cloning and pursue direct programming instead.

Adult stem cells are obtained from a skin biopsy 1/10th of an inch in diameter and about as painful as a blood draw. One study was able to produce an average of 10 pluripotent stem-cell lines from one biopsy. (Pluripotent means these cells can be programmed to make all cell types of the human body without cloning.) No live embryos are destroyed and no human eggs are required.

Recently, adult stem cells have reversed multiple sclerosis in 17 of 21 patients with none experiencing deterioration of their condition. Parkinson's disease and diabetes also have been successfully treated.

The possibilities of healing humanity by this discovery are limited only by the skill and ingenuity of the researchers involved. This discovery makes embryonic stem cell research obsolete.

It makes one wonder why, by presidential decree, millions of taxpayer dollars are still being spent on this controversial embryonic stem-cell theory. The time has come for us to pay more attention to his actions and less to those colorless words.

For more information on this discovery, go to stemcellresearch.org

Vince Metcalf, Montello