Speaking from his Texas ranch last week, W made a "decision" on funding for embryonic stem-cell research. "Decision" is a rather strong word for the announcement, since the end result is that those 60 stem cell lines currently being used for research may continue to be funded, but no new ones will be.
A real "decision" would have been an announcement that actually took a stand on the issue one way or the other. The debate has become one of morality, rather than medicine or science, with one side saying that the use of embryonic stem cells is akin to murder because prior to using the embryo it had the potential for life, and the other side saying that the embryos used would never have resulted in life as they are the excess embryos created in the invitro-fertilization process and would be destroyed with or without stem cell research.
First of all, if you've managed to miss all this discussion, the science and medicine community feel this research is vital to finding cures for such diseases as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Now, the far right would have you believe that there's some evil death industry out there creating embryos for the express purpose of destroying them for research. Nothing is further from the truth. The industry producing these embryos is in the business of helping infertile couples have children.
As part of the invitro-fertilization process many more embryos are created than are actually used. This is because it usually takes many tries before a couple either successfully conceives, or gives up after too many failures. The excess embryos (so tiny at this point that dozens of them could fit on the proverbial head of a pin) are then destroyed.
The number of excess embryos that must be destroyed each year is probably in the tens of thousands (maybe more); the number needed for stem cell research is in the hundreds. Clearly, there is no need to create embryos strictly for the purpose of destroying them to get the cells needed for research.
But, the right knows enough not to attack the fertilization industry. That would not be a popular target. The right has no intention of "saving the potential lives" represented by the excess embryos destroyed each year.
What they want to do, and are being somewhat successful at, is using mistrust and misunderstanding of medical research to attack scientists (nobody really likes those eggheads anyway). By getting the President to take a stand against further stem cell research they've now set a precedent for saying an inert, frozen group of microscopic cells is a potential citizen with rights that need protection.
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