Fresh off the wire today, scientists have harvested stem cells from cloned 'embryos'. Sure to create controversy, this technique could unleash countless medical advances over the next 5 - 10 years.

USANow's opinion? The technique announced today does not seem to be odds with pro-life thinking, which of course seeks to protect all life from the moment of conception.

Here's an excerpt from today's announcement:
"In the experiment, Hwang and his colleagues cloned each woman using her own egg cell and her own cumulus cell, so the clones were 100 percent copies of each woman. They activated the egg cells using a chemical process, which started the eggs growing as if they had been fertilized by a sperm and got 30 embryos to grow to the blastocyst stage."

Since no conception has taken place, this doesn't seem (on the surface) to be a practice at odds with the pro-life agenda. Given the strong political and commercial forces behind stem cell research, it's clear that scientists will be harvesting stem cells one way or another in the not-too-distant future. Let's hope this technique or one similar proves to be fruitful, because it will be a sad day in America if embryos are created purely for the imminent destruction brought on by stem cell harvesting.