The Second Edition of Kiessling and Anderson"s text, Human Embryonic Stem Cells, continues to address the social, legal, and ethical debates resulting from the Bush Administration"s restriction of federal funding for embryonic stem cell therapy. The emerging field of human embryonic stem cell biomedicine crosses many disciplinary boundaries -- cell biology, reproductive biology, embryology, molecular biology, endocrinology, immunology, fetal medicine, transplantation medicine, and surgery. This single reference provides basic information from these multiple disciplines as it pertains to the science of stem cells.