Japanese Scientist Discover way to create stem cells from Skin cells

I. Scientists Create Embryonic Stem Cells from Skin, NPR radio news site, November 20, 2007 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16456136

II. Recently, Japanese scientists have made a huge discovery in stem cell research. They have found a way to create an embryonic cell (stem cell) from any normal skin cells. They can specify exactly what the cell will be, which greatly reduces the chance of cell rejection in the human body. Changing the cells is possible by switching off certain of the cell’s genes. Scientists have been testing with mice for years but haven’t had much success until now.

III.

A) This article relates to the cultural, religious, or intellectual developments AP world theme. It is an enormous intellectual discovery that will lead to many advances in treatment for brain damage and other sicknesses.
B) For years, scientists have been researching in stem cells. These cells are embryonic and haven’t been assigned specific roles in the body. This means that they can be ordered to turn into any type of cell. This is useful, because if someone gets a head injury and loses a lot of brain cells, they are in trouble, because brain cells don’t grow back. But the stem cells can be ordered into brain cells and then given to the patient. Stem cells are useful, but due to religious and moral people; the supply for fresh stem cells (which could only be given at the birth of a child up until now) is low and the demand high. The government has to listen to the people, so they severely limit the amount of stem cells scientists can use.
C) The author of the article is Joe Palca. He’s a scientist himself so his view may be biased because he may dream of scientific discoveries of this magnitude. If this were to be false or over exaggerated, his possible hopes and dreams could be crushed.
D) There isn’t any real indication of biased view in this article. Joe Palca is excited about the discovery, but he doesn’t use words like “incredible” or “discovery”, so he doesn’t exaggerate it. Also he uses quotes from other scientists so the reader can see the point of views from other people researching the same topic.
E) I would like to hear from a religious person that fought against the use of stem cell research. I’d like to know if they would still think that stem cells are morally wrong even though you don’t need a newborn to obtain the cells.
F) I think that this is an incredible discovery. Stem cell research was progressing slowly because they had limited funding and resources, but now they have all the cells they need, because skin cells are in abundance. There is a debate on what will happen now. Stems cells can be created into any cell, which includes an egg and a sperm. This means that babies can be created very quickly and in huge numbers. Some crazy person may one day decide to create an army of humans. And this may be how the machines managed to grow humans in quantities like in the movie "The Matrix".