Stemming the debate

During the campaign,both McCain and Obama had promised to lift this flat-out ban on federally funded stem cell research McCain with more qualifiers about ethical principles. Stem cells have long been regarded as a possible medical magic wand as source cells with the capacity to replace human tissues and organs,and undo the damage of severe disease. They are called stems because they are the stalks which branch out and diversify into specialised cells. When taken from days-old embryos discarded from fertility clinics,they are virtually immortal,and hold deep promise for illnesses from Alzheimers disease,cancer,Parkinsons disease,type-1 diabetes,spinal cord injury,stroke,burns,heart disease,osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis . To Bush and his ideological ilk,embryonic life science,like abortion,called up the right to life question an embryo even one already doomed,rejected by the fertility clinic is morally equivalent to a fully formed adult life. So the Bush administration termed embryonic stem cells vast ethical minefields and limited research funding to the clump of stem cell lines created before August 9,2001. Obamas changed policy does not fund new lines or get into which lines can be followed up it simply allows taxpayer money to be used for such research which relied,so far,on private donations. But reinvigorating science and sealing it away from the maelstrom of politics and belief has been one of the Obama administrations key promises,and this first action is indeed momentous.