Change You Can Believe In

File this one under, it's about damn time:

When the Bush presidency ends, opponents of embryonic stem cell research will face a new political reality that many feel powerless to stop.

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to lift restrictions on federal money for such research. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also has expressed interest in going ahead with legislation in the first 100 days of the new Congress if it still is necessary to set up a regulatory framework.

And while the new administration and the majority of Americans favor stem cell research, its opponents won't give up the fight, saying they will continue to argue that life begins at conception...although they never seem to argue that in-vitro fertilization should be out-lawed...and that the lion's share of progress has been seen in research involving adult stem cells, "so money should be directed where the biggest scientific breakthroughs have occurred." But as the director of public affairs at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine points out:

"It's a little disingenuous for opponents who have effectively blocked federal funding of the work to then cite a lack of progress," Tipton said. "You hold someone at the starting line then you criticize them for not getting very far."

We'll never know what progress might have been made in embryonic stem cell research over the past seven years had the Bush administration not put ideology over science, but it's time to find out its potential.