Wednesday, December 5

As we all know, stem cell research has been very controversial, especially as it relates to cloning. Since so much has happened over the past two weeks I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the instant replay. A little over a week ago Advanced Cell Technologies announced that it had cloned a human embryo. Bush calls it “morally wrong”, calls for a ban and then three days later creates the White House Council on Bioethics. On Monday, the Senate voted on an amendment to impose a 6-month moratorium on human embryo cloning. It was defeated 1-94, mostly because it was bundled with another controversial measure that would have allowed oil drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. It’s scary how fast obviously beneficial research can be banned without much discussion beforehand. Just a reminder that it's never too late to let your elected officials know how you feel about this research.