Company name: StemLifeLine
Website: http://www.stemlifeline.com/
Sales pitch: A novel service for individuals who have undergone in vitro fertilization, fulfilled their childbearing needs and now have to decide what to do with their remaining stored embryos. We can help transform these embryos into individual stem cell lines that our clients may one day use to create personalized therapies for themselves and their families.
AT – Opinion: It’s like buying a space suit today for future comercial moon travel.
Another sales pitch from their website: Using StemLifeLine’s service to develop a personal stem cell line is like buying insurance for the future. More than a decade of scientific data strongly supports the future use of embryonic stem cells for treating a variety of degenerative conditions, such as those that occur following spinal cord injury, or Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, and heart disease.
AT – It would be like saying: Buying our space suit is like buying your trip to the moon today. More than 30 years of space travel strongly supports the future use of this space suit to travel to the moon and other planets like Mars, Saturn and Neptune.
AT – Down to earth: In the coming years science will uncover many new treatments with embryonic stem cells for disease and injury. Embryonic stem cells may unlock the mysteries of early human development, help diagnose disease and be used as tools to discover new drugs. Extra embryos are essential for researchers to get from this point to the treatments the world desperately needs.
AT – Questions: Is privately storing embryonic stem cells a good strategy against a disease-free future?
The technique used today to store the stem cell line will change in the future. What do they use to preserve the cells? How do they grow the stem cell line? Is it better to donate remaining store embryos to research?
