On the one hand, used properly, medical correction in which stem cells are the key instrument of healing have been proven to work almost as an elixir of life. That is essentially because stem cells, especially those contained in umbilical cord blood, form the template - the genesis, as it were - of the human person. A unique quality that makes stem cells a near total panacea is their adaptability, enabling them to transform into any of the umpteen cells in the human body.
The secret of restoring health lies in replacing decrepit cells ravaged by disease with stem cells. This advance in stem cell research follows and is closely linked to the simultaneous announcement by former US President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister John Major in 2000 that scientists had unravelled the human genome by more than 90 percent. The breakthrough of the Human Genome Project was hailed in superlative terms as advancement in the treatment of cancer and hereditary diseases. Clinton described it as the first survey of the entire human genome and "the most wondrous map ever produced by humankind". A couple of years earlier, physician-geneticist Francis Collins, that leading light noted for his discoveries of disease genes, had described the advance in breaking the human genetic code as something that would be judged by history as "more significant than even splitting the atom or going to the moon".
