I understand what the issues are with taking cells from an embryo, but can't they use stem cells from placentas that are donated after a child is born?
There is a relatively new technique in which they are using stem cells form the umbilical cord of the donated placenta, however I know a friend that did research in this and he found that they could only be stored for a number of hours and experiments had to be carried out fast and the techniques were quite difficult. Recently they have been able to store these placenta's. And with more and more “banks” around the world for saving cord blood, the potential for finding tissue matches for every patient becomes more and more realistic. “There are now eight banks in the UK alone,”
Umbilical cord stem cells are not quite as primitive as embryonic stem cells, which can give rise to any tissue type of the body. But they appear to be much more versatile than “adult stem cells” such as those found in bone marrow which repair damaged tissue during life.
Once again for science this is pretty new stuff