Hope for Healing

For all the talk about U.S. cultural, economic and military dominance, there is one scientific area in which America may not become a superpower: stem-cell research. And who might be? Britain.

Last week the country's Medical Research Council (MRC) unveiled plans for the U.K. Stem Cell Bank in Hertfordshire — the world's first for storing and supplying tissue from human embryos and aborted fetuses to be used to repair diseased and damaged parts of the body. The announcement came at a London conference of 400 scientists, government officials and patient lobby groups from 10 countries. "What was interesting...