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Originally Posted by Danzig
this is an excerpt from an article i just read on the subject:
Research on stem cell lines derived in the interim would be eligible for federal funding. The new provision also would add ethical standards to be used for selecting embryos to be studied using federal funds, according to a draft of the provision.
By the 2008 elections, Democrats predicted, Bush's veto of new public funding for embryonic stem cell research would be a top priority of voters in the congressional and presidential elections.
Public opinion polls show strong support for the research.
Republican presidential hopefuls are split on the scope of federal involvement in embryonic stem cell research. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani have broken with Bush — and the GOP's social conservatives — in backing the expansion of federal funding for such research.
Rivals Mitt Romney and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas oppose the expansion.
Most of the Democratic candidates have urged Bush to expand the research.
Scientists were first able to conduct research with embryonic stem cells in 1998, according to the National Institutes of Health. There were no federal funds available for the work until Bush announced on Aug. 9, 2001, that his administration would spend tax money for research on lines of cells that already were in existence.
Currently, states and private organizations are permitted to fund embryonic stem cell research, but federal support is limited to cells that existed as of Aug. 9, 2001. The latest bill was aimed at lifting that restriction.
the part in bold, i highlighted because i didn't know this, and wasn't sure anyone else did either....
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Danzig,
The 76 cell lines that previously existed (and have not been expanded) serve to limit research. And, as you might know, NIH funding (the leading source for genetic investigation) has been cut substantially.
Estimates are that between 400,000 and 500,000 frozen "embryos" (really blastocysts) are discarded when they are no longer viable. The "Snowflake Project" has implanted 120 to 140 into serrogate mothers, where they were brought to term. All the rest, alas, found their way not to funerals but to medical waste.
Bush's policies concerning scientific research are quite obvious, as is his inconstant value of "human life", and investiagtion that holds the potential to improve it.