(WSBT) A major breakthrough could make more diseases curable. Scientists in Wisconsin and Japan discovered adult skin cells can be re-programmed to function like embryonic stem cells. Medical experts say this could eliminate the need for embryonic stem cells because skin cells are easier to use and medically superior.

Carter Snead is a Notre Dame law professor who served on President Bush's Council on Bio-Ethics. He says this approach should eliminate ethical barriers because it's more accessible and easier to fund.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation estimates 3 million Americans are living with Type 1 or Juvenile Diabetes. More than 40 children are diagnosed with it each day.

But this debilitating disease and others including Parkinson's could become curable thanks to a new approach using four strands of DNA and cells from the largest human organ: skin.

"We are able to get cells that are functionally identical to stem cells without having to destroy embryos simply by reprogramming skin cells," said Carter Snead, a Notre Dame law professor and former counsel on President Bush's Bio-Ethics Council.

Scientists say the skin cells are easier to reproduce and shouldn't be rejected since they come from the patient's own body.

But the benefits are even further reaching.

"This is an extraordinary development because it alleviates all the moral controversy that surrounded embryonic stem cell research," said Snead.

It's even getting praise from Indiana Right to Life, a pro-life organization that hopes this will bring not only an end to the debate, but also to the use of embryonic stem cells.

In a statement, the executive director Mike Frichter says, "Now is the time to abandon failed and unethical embryonic research in favor of a new method that focuses on healing instead of destruction."

The technology is still in the research stage and won't be part of clinical trials or therapies for years. When it is, federal funding shouldn't be an issue.

"This research by contrast is fully eligible for federal funding and no taxpayer would be compelled to pay for something that is morally reprehensible," said Snead.

President Bush has vetoed federal funding for embryonic stem cell research in the past, but he is supporting this new technique.

Scientists are calling this the biggest breakthrough since 1996 when embryonic stem cells were discovered and Dolly the sheep was cloned.
Even that scientist is abandoning embryonic stem cell research for this new technique.