God and Stem Cells
By Dr. Paul Kengor
January 11, 2007
Dr. Paul Kengor

On Thursday, January 11, the new Democratic Congress followed through on its ambitious agenda to promote embryonic stem-cell research. As it moves forward, President George W. Bush will be grabbing his veto pen. As he does, we will hear charges that the president is “anti-science,” and that faith has once again trumped reason.

This allegation will not be restricted to the pages of The New York Times. I recently read an article by a right-leaning British observer who took issue with President Bush’s “anti-scientific perception that stem-cell research should be deterred.” The author considered whether this alleged unsophisticated attitude was the product of a very “un-European willingness” by Americans “to believe in supernatural forces.”

This unflattering view of not only the American president but millions of like-minded citizens is hardly uncommon. It also requires some explanation:

First, a crucial distinction: George W. Bush, like many Americans, opposes federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. No one opposes research on adult stem cells or stem cells acquired through umbilical cord blood or bone marrow—the debate is over stem cells acquired through the killing of an embryo. Bush is against the use of taxpayer dollars to fund the creation of human embryos for the sole purpose of scientific research. the rest