MELBOURNE, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- The realistic prospect of scientists developing the god-like power to develop functioning embryos from stem cells is fanning calls for a national ethics debate on the subject in Australia.
A leading Australian scientist claimed, in a report published in research journal Nature Methods on Tuesday, that professionals would soon have the capacity to produce a three or four-week embryo from pluripotent stem cells.
"We think these are serious issues that we have to consider carefully as scientists before we go too far and get into an area where people would be genuinely uncomfortable with what they're seeing," Professor Martin Pera, a stem cell scientist at the University of Melbourne, told the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday.
Pluripotent stem cells can transform into any type of cell in human body, and Pera is concerned scientists could potentially create what may be perceived as an ethical abomination -- a human embryo with the DNA of the original cell.
According to Pera, his team conducted an experiment last year that showed it was possible for these flexible cells to "mimic the body plan of the post-implantation embryo".
Scientists were able to divide the cells into three germ layers, which are essential to organ growth in embryonic development.
"It's not hard to envision that we would be able to take stem cells and have them develop into structures that resemble a three- or four-week human embryo fairly soon if that were something that people were comfortable with scientists doing," Pera said.
At present, the Melbourne-based research team is only experimenting on rhesus monkeys and will not proceed with human trials until society debates the topic, Pera said.
Pera suggested ethical questions would need to be addressed in the space of a few years, as the boundless possibilities of stem cell research came to light.
"I think there are huge ethical issues that we're going to confront in years to come," he said.
"One of the important things is for scientists to engage in these discussions and not present the public with a fait accompli that is really going to go beyond any ethical boundaries that people were prepared for."
