The Associated Press has an article regarding scientists at Harvard who are fusing skin and embryonic stem cells in order to create stem cells that wouldn’t need to be harvested from unused embryos. I think this shows just how bad things have gotten for our scientific community.

On the one hand you can say this is great that scientists are finding ways to get around using the stem cells that many in the hardcore religious right, including the President, object to. This despite the House of Representatives sending legislation to the Senate that would open up more research in the field, by changing the original law that limited the amount of lines. The President, of course, has promised a veto on any such legislation.

More than that though, I feel this is a waste of time. Unfortunately due to the President’s policy, scientists are forced to spend more time finding a way to get the materials they need instead of focusing on the research that should be done. Meanwhile in a laboratory in South Korea advances are being made every day that change the way we understand human biology and may one day lead to revolutionary treatments. Not in America though; because of what amounts to a religious edict from the government, our scientists, some of the brightest in the world, can’t perform the research they want. The research many Americans want and need.

As was pointed out the opposition comes from the hardcore religious right. Unlike other religious issues that draw almost 50-50 splits, the opposition in this case tends to the minority of the population. In fact public opinion on the matter of stem cell research falls strongly and in some polls overwhelmingly in the pro-research camp. The most recent poll was conducted by Gallup; the details were:

“Do you think the federal government should or should not fund research that would use newly created stem cells obtained from human embryos?”
Should: 56%
Should Not: 40%
Unsure: 4%

The House clearly gets the message and acted toward the position that has broad support from Americans. Now, we need to see if the Senate will follow suit and even the example of Majority Leader Bill Frist in supporting this legislation.

Finally, I’d like to take issue with the bias in this particular Associate Press article, their references to stem cells are buttressed with the typical talking points of the religious right on the matter.

that could lead to the creation of useful stem cells without first having to create and destroy human embryos.
[...]
Those social concerns are reflected in the Senate’s looming debate over a House-passed bill to force taxpayers to fund stem cell research that would destroy human embryos, legislation President Bush has promised to veto. Bush and many fellow conservatives believe it is immoral to create embryos only to destroy them, even in the name of scientific progress that could cure or treat diseases afflicting millions of people.

The article doesn’t even come close to the simple fact that the stem cells used, aren’t being created for the purpose of research. Instead most come from embryos scheduled and planned to be discarded. So while President Bush can talk about his snowflake children, he doesn’t seem all to concerned with the six to seven embryos that were ‘destroyed’ in the process of trying to implant just one, or the embryos that get discarded every day. Those embryos that the President is fine with destroying could lead to medical breakthroughs, I don’t know about you, but I call that supporting the cause of life.