Stem Cell Research has just Gotten Simpler

Reuters has the story of yet another advance in SCR:

A U.S. company that developed a way to make human embryonic stem cells without harming the original embryo said on Friday it was optimistic the technique would overcome ethical concerns that have held back funding for stem cell research.

California-based Advanced Cell Technology Inc. developed the technology to quell the raging ethical debate in the United States over the harvesting of embryonic stem cells, which under current methods results in destruction of human embryos.

“For most rational people this removes the last rational objection for opposing this research,” Advanced Cell’s chief scientist, Robert Lanza, said in an interview at the company’s Worcester research center.

Actually, for most rational people there was no objection in the first place, because a) embryos aren’t persons, b) embryos used in SCR are harvested from IVF clinics and would’ve been destroyed even without SCR, and c) embryos aren’t persons.

I actually feel bad for these scientists. They don’t do anything that should piss conservatives off; their inventions don’t change the social order, and their discoveries don’t suggest there should be more corporate regulations. They’re getting sidelined as a mere byproduct of conservatives’ abortion policy.

Lanza says he doesn’t think Bush will now approve of SCR, but does think there’ll be an overriding majority in Congress. In fact, it all depends on just how irrational potential supporters are, on just how much they are able to reconcile this new form of SCR with a hardline anti-choice position. The actions of madmen powered by greed or megalomania are predictable; these of true believers aren’t.