Sen. Kerry's Stem-Cell Fairy Tales

WASHINGTON — Along with the war on terror and the economy, stem-cell research has emerged as an issue in the presidential campaign. Sen. John F. Kerry has repeatedly attacked the Bush administration for "banning" the research, declaring that "here in America we don't sacrifice science for ideology." In promoting the promise of stem cells at the Democratic National Convention, Ron Reagan said we must choose "between reason and ignorance, between true compassion and mere ideology." In response to such criticisms, First Lady Laura Bush accused Democrats of giving false hope to the sick and defended her husband, saying that the president is a great advocate of stem-cell research.

This back and forth has shed little light on the stem-cell question facing the country. Some level of confusion is probably unavoidable. The research is complicated biology, and stem cells come from a variety of sources: bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, aborted fetuses, human embryos, cloned human embryos. Adult and non-embryonic stem-cell research garners universal public support. Embryonic stem-cell research causes division because it involves the creation and destruction of human embryos at the earliest stages of human life.

Democrats are eager to discuss the issue, and Kerry's campaign rhetoric seems to have three objectives: first, to convince the nation that Bush has "enacted a far-reaching ban on stem-cell research." Second, to encourage Americans, especially sick ones, to believe that cures for everything from AIDS to Alzheimer's are just around the corner. Finally, to make ethical opposition to embryo research seem not just misguided but irrational -- like opposing the Earth's orbit around the sun. All powerful claims; all false.

There is no ban on stem-cell research in America. When it comes to adult stem-cell research, Bush is a strong advocate, with the National Institutes of Health providing more than $180 million to researchers last year. When it comes to embryonic stem-cell research, there are no legal limits of any kind: New embryonic stem-cell institutes are springing up at major universities across the country; Californians will vote in November on a $3-billion bond initiative to fund embryo research; scientists at Harvard recently created 17 new embryonic stem-cell lines, and scientists in Chicago produced 50 more. To say repeatedly, as Kerry has, that Bush has "shut down" stem-cell research is absurd.