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Stem Cell Research Moves Forward In The US
maniacdavid writes "President George Bush has finally made a clear and final decision on stem cell research. He will allow the existing 60 cell lines to continue their development in the hopes of curing a disease. He said the choice was difficult because of his stand on against stem cell funding during his campaign. But he allowed the 60 to continue because the choice between life and death was already made. This is good for both sides and many people are pleased. " Granted, there's the issue of these 60 lines viability, but at least it's not a total federal funding ban, as was widely expected. As well, there's increased funding on stem cells obtained from adults, umbilical cords, placentas and animals - 250$US million this year, which is still a pittance when you consider the potentials of stem cells.
It sure seems to me that GWB didn't really make a decision- what people wanted was a definitive yes or no, but he ends up giving a "you can't blame me," try to please the most people, answer. I don't see it as a decision, it is more of a postponement of the answer, and a deferral to his new "council" on the matter.
I thought people were fed up with all the politics going on- and it sure seems like more of the same- refusal to take a real stand, because, horrors of horrors, he may lose some of his constintuency.
It doesn't look like this decision will make embryonic stem cell research any easier- now they will need documentation on the particular line of the cell and so forth. Embryonic stem cell research has been really hard already for any entity that is not privately funded- the government has required an extreme amount of separation in the facilities of Universities doing this sort of research (to the point of demanding completely separate, off-campus facilities, with absolutely no sharing of equipment/staff/support, and so on... there was a NPR report on this a few weeks back).
I don't think that this decision will really advance the cause of stem cell research, more just push it further into the arms of commerical entities. Commercial work in this area is great- but companies need to push for profits and drop research in areas that are not immediately promising. The value of government investment is that it enables researchers to work on deeper, long term projects that may not have an obvious path to profit. Research does not always mean success.