From one point of view, the stem cell forum on May 17 at the University of Ottawa took place three days too early. By May 20 the audience would have known of a development that brought many of the issues under discussion at the forum into sharper and more immediate focus.

As reported in Science magazine just those three days later, a research team in South Korea had successfully produced the first embryonic stem cells to genetically match injured or ailing patients. They accomplished this using a technique called somatic nuclear cell transfer, popularly known as therapeutic cloning. By either name this procedure is considered a crime under Canada’s law governing human reproductive technology, punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.

Most of the Canadian stem cell researchers who took part in the afternoon forum at Tabaret Hall knew about this important development because they had read pre-publication copies of the Science report and (in several instances) already provided journalists with their views in advance. Under Science’s embargo strictures, however, they were not allowed to reveal to the audience that this important development was no longer somewhere in the indeterminate future, but was already fact.

Yet knowing that another stem cell Rubicon had been crossed would likely have changed little in the views expressed by the speakers, panelists, and audience brought together under the auspices of the Royal Society of Canada and the University of Ottawa. That’s because the Korean advance was exactly what most had already predicted as the probable next step in embryonic stem cell research, although not quite so soon. For some, it was further evidence of the vast promise of such work. For others, it was equal evidence of the immense peril.