According to data from the World Health Organization, cardiovascular disease is the number one killer globally, resulting in an estimated 17.3 million deaths in 2008 alone (1). Such a mind-boggling number may make it difficult to appreciate the fact that each death means the loss of a human person, and a painful vacuum left in the lives of loved ones.

As difficult as this destructive illness may be both on a worldwide and on a personal level, some are beginning to see hope: Because cardiovascular disease accounts for 30% of global deaths, there are worldwide efforts to develop new and better treatments and improve prevention.

As these efforts have exploded over the last decade, stem cell therapy has emerged as perhaps the fastest growing area of interest in biomedical research, and funds from international venture capitalists and other investors have followed quickly behind. Among some of the more fascinating findings are those which demonstrate that some adult stem cells can be coaxed to become a specific cell type, and can then be used to regenerate diseased or injured tissues. Such research has raised hopes that conditions once thought incurable might prove to be treatable after all.

Due to the promise of this potentially lucrative field, however, the debates over the ethics of different types of research and treatments have at times dominated the headlines. While treating patients with stem cells is not in itself ethically problematic, the primary moral issues revolve around the method of obtaining the cells...