Word: stemming
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...Bush's talk about ethics and the immorality of destroying embryos—even embryos that will be inevitably destroyed by fertility clinics—the Bush Administration has refused thus far to fully engage the ethical issues. It certainly hasn’t stopped embryonic stem cell research—but it has made funding more complicated, forced scientists to keep their federally-funded and non-federally-funded projects separate, and left a void where national ethical standards should be. Bush's executive order, which he issued Wednesday along with his veto, further demonstrates the same sort of evasion...
While such alternative methods show their own promises, they cannot replace embryonic stem cell research. Stem cells found in amniotic fluid, which Bush suggested “seem to do what embryonic cells can,” are simply not as versatile as the embryonic stem cells they supposedly mimic. The same problem is even more true of adult stem cells, which have successfully been used for some treatments but which will never be usable for others. Although the Bush Administration has argued that there have been more successful treatments with adult stem cells than with embryonic ones...
Recently, there has been excitement about reprogramming adult cells into embryonic stem cells, a feat newly accomplished with mice. But this, too, has its problems. First, it may be years before the same can be done with human cells. Second, and possibly more troublingly, the resulting cells were highly susceptible to tumors—clearly not ideal for developing medical treatments...
While all these alternative methods are worth investigating and are already being avidly pursued by scientists, they are not a substitute for embryonic stem cell research, as Bush has suggested. The fastest way to discover new cures is to pursue all avenues of research, not to abandon the most promising one and try to make up for it by spending extra money on the others...
...concerns about destroying human life are not a fabrication of the religious right or merely an excuse for an anti-science administration to deny funding. They are the same concerns that have been brought up in Europe, where governments have been far more permissive of embryonic stem cell research. Scientists in European countries typically must obtain a license to create a new embryonic line. Even in Britain, where the government has been not only permissive but actively supportive of embryonic research, there is widespread recognition that embryos should not be freely destroyed. The British government, like many others, has also...