This chapter considers several techniques recently developed to obtain human pluripotent stem cells, without, apparently, disaggregating human embryos: reprogramming somatic cells (to obtain induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells), altered nuclear transfer combined with oocyte-assisted reprogramming, and parthenogenesis (naturally occurring or chemically activated). On what basis can one determine whether a product of a reproductive technique is a human embryo or not? This chapter proposes a criterion: does the entity produced have the genetic–epigenetic state, and overall organization, such that it will develop itself to the mature stage of a human organism (an organism with a brain that can provide experience suitable to be the substrate of conceptual thought), provided a suitable environment and nutrition? This chapter briefly defends that criterion and applies it to various types of biological entities.