Journalists responsible for The Philadelphia Inquirer's Editorials made an important point in yesterday's editorial "No thanks to politics" regarding the recent "Stem-Cell Breakthrough."
Editorialists pays tribute to scientists from Japan and the United States for not only discovering a way to reprogram skin cells so that they behave much like embryonic stem cells, but also for effectively ending the controversy over research involving embryonic stem cells derived from destroyed human embyros.
After clear descriptions of the research teams' reprogramming process, the Inquirerwriters slam politicians for playing politics with this issue of life and death. Here's what they had to say:
The stem-cell debate - and how it was waged - was distasteful and unnecessary. No group holds a copyright on morality. Christians and non-Christians alike were enthusiastic about hESC research; Christians and non-Christians alike were distressed.
Ah, but politicians werewilling to hamstring research for six years in the name of moral grandstanding. Their gamble may have paid off, but that doesn't change the cynicism and moral bankruptcy of it. Today they are trumpeting their own foresight. Well, that's what politicians do. They are people who never ran an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, never did a balancer chromosome screen, people who never peered into a microscope and discovered the truth.
Science, and scientists, continue to be a pro-lifer's best friends.
(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan
Crossposting with http://www.mothermayibeborn.com
