At least the Washington Post’s headline mentions that the story is about ESCs, unlike so many headlines around the country, such as the New York Times’ (Obama Set to Reverse Bush’s Stem-Cell Restrictions) which simply mention stem cells in an obvious attempt to make it appear as if Bush was restricting all stem cell research
President Obama’s decision to lift restrictions on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, scheduled to be announced Monday, is expected to provide a major boost to one of the most promising but controversial fields of biomedical research in generations.
Promising? So far, research using adult, placental, and other stem cell lines have produced a long, long, long list of treatments, medicines, and cures, without those pesky teratomas produced using ESCs. Those would also be known as “monster tumors.”
As far as a major boost, yes, it certainly will be for scientists that rely solely on federal funding for their research. Private research has had little interest in ESC research, because of those pesky monster tumors, and the fact that the other stem cell research, particularly adult, has been making them some serious coin, since it works.
The signing of an executive order voiding the restrictions will allow thousands of scientists to study hundreds of lines of cells that have been developed since the limitations were put in place eight years ago. It will also allow them to dismantle cumbersome bureaucracies constructed to work around the constraints and let them exchange scientific ideas more easily.
The restriction was simply from using federal money. Really, other then throwing a bone to the left wing and scientists who can’t survive off the federal dole, what will this accomplish? The restrictions did not stop any scientist from doing research with embryonic stem cells, they just couldn’t use federal money. So, someone tell me what the point is. Science won’t be advanced, just politics. If the research with ESCs actually provided treatments, cures, and/or medicines, I’d be all for it. But, it has been nothing more then a political issue, and worthless as research.
Here’s a nice little fact sheet comparing the benefits of adult stem cell research to embryonic stem cell research.
Others: Jack & Jill Politics, The Gun Toting Liberal, The Corner, NO QUARTER, Liberal Values, The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room, Political Punch, ACSBlog, Swampland and The Moderate Voice
