Without any apparent sense of irony, many newspapers last week ran adjoining stories about human stem cells.
One explained that the U.S. Senate was moving forward with legislation (which passed) that would expand the number of embryonic stem cell lines that could be studied with taxpayer dollars. The other announced that stem cells from the patient’s own body had successfully halted, and perhaps reversed—at least temporarily—the progression of Type-1 diabetes.
The issue over using taxpayer dollars to fund research on embryonic stem cells has become hopelessly mired in misunderstanding—a misunderstanding often encouraged by supporters of expanded taxpayer funding.
When asked, the vast majority of people believe that President Bush refuses to allow taxpayer dollars to be used on embryonic stem cell research. The irony is that his is the first administration to actually fund that research.
The president has received only scorn from many prominent stem cell research supporters for doing so. No good deed goes unpunished—just unpublished!
And the reason for their scorn is that he has limited the number of cell lines available for funding with federal taxpayer dollars. Although another factor almost completely ignored or misunderstood in this debate is that researchers can use all the private or state funds they can raise for embryonic stem cell research.
Because most Americans don’t understand the distinction, funding supporters can—and do—say the president is undermining important research that would cure devastating diseases and save countless lives. And they claim that other types of stem cell research, such as using adult stem cells—which wouldn’t harm a human embryo—simply don’t hold the possibility of the cures.
Hence the irony of the two news articles running side by side.
Embryonic stem cell research has never produced a cure for anything. Scientists are optimistic—and they may be right—but there are no victories. Whereas other types of stem cells have shown great promise, in this case fighting Type-1 diabetes.
Regardless of which side of this debate one takes, we think that everyone should understand what the legislation is intended to do. It doesn’t, as most people think, allow embryonic stem cell research for the first time—such research is already going on right now. It simply expands the number and kinds of stem cells available for research at taxpayer's expense.