A court ruling by Luxembourg's European Court of Justice has left the future of stem cell in a lurch. The ban on patents involving innovations in stem cell research, obtained from the blastocyst stage of an embryo, has won grave disagreement from scientists all over Europe.

The Court upholds the belief that stem cells from embryos should not be used unless it is being used to help the embryo itself. The ruling holds good for procedures of extracting stem cells that kills the embryo and they say that it is not right to kill no matter how small or insignificant an embryo seems. The ruling, however, is not applicable to procedures that involve the use of stem cells to help the embryo itself.

Scientists say that the ruling will impede research in the field of stem cells and have grave ramifications on a global level. This goes to say that only fundamental research will be possible in Europe but further studies cannot be done.

Problems will arise when biotech or pharma companies looking to invest in research start taking it out of Europe to the US or Asia.

However, revolutionary progress in the field of stem cell research has revealed that there is another type of human stem cell that shares the characteristics of human embryonic stem cells.

This discovery has taken care of the controversy over using embryos for obtaining stem cells. This find will also allow researchers to explore the possibility of turning any cell of the body into any other type of cell.

Although this discovery will open new avenues for stem cell research, it will be some time before scientists are able to determine whether induced stem cells are as good as embryonic stem cells.

So far, all discoveries made with stem cells obtained from embryos apply to induced stem cells as well.