Send this story Print this story

Adjust text size

Uploaded: Monday, March 9, 2009, 11:28 AM

Stanford researchers applaud stem cell decision
Ban on using federal funds is lifted

Posted by YouShouldKnow, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 9, 2009 at 5:01 pm

Good for Obama. Good decision. This is important and necessary research.

Posted by Captain Planet, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Mar 9, 2009 at 6:58 pm

This is important and necessary research?

Rrright. Just like global warming and flying pigs.

The only thing this will do is give taxpayer money to those over leveraged socalled phd types..

More will not change the facts of live and cell rejection is on the top of the list of facts.

Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 10, 2009 at 5:26 am
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

While I can't find the quote, apparently the President said something about in the future all government programs must be based on reliable science.

Goodbye Global Warming/Climate Change.

Goodbye Daylight Saving Time.

Goodbye Endangered Species Act.

Goodbye Wilderness areas.

Hello dams.

Hello drilling.

Hello affordable energy.

Hello freedom of movement.

Posted by Greg, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Mar 10, 2009 at 8:42 am

How about a market-based solution to stem cell-based medicines? If the people who are opposed to these kinds of medicines just boycott them, then the companies will stop developing them.

Posted by Sharon, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 10, 2009 at 10:56 am

Imagine if the president declared "the military will be free of ideological or political interference. Henceforth, neither the Congress nor the executive branch can meddle in military decisions or impose their political or ideological agendas on how it operates."

Most people surely recognize how stupid and dangerous this would be (including the founding fathers who wisely made sure the constitution barred anything of the sort).

But then again, what's the difference?

After all, the military is full of experts who understand the complexities of war far better than most civilian leaders.

Why should non-experts from the political branches impose their "ideological" preferences and agendas on the military? Let's not even bring up the word "ethics" — it has no place in such affairs.

Let's just leave it up to the military to determine what rules it should follow, what practices it can adopt.

They're the experts. Just like with Stem Cells and biologists right?

Posted by Perspective, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 10, 2009 at 11:06 am

There are 2 appalling underlying presumptions that are false:

1) This is the first federal approval..false..Bush approved the first federally approved embryonic stem cell research

2) Science needs to be divorced from "politics"..False, this IS a political decision, not simply a science one.

Remember, Hitler's Germany justified medical research of horrific torture, including death, on Jews as "for the good of others" and "not really on humans". Slippery slope folks.

Unrelated but relevant: Not one advance in human medicine has been made from embryonic stem cells. They have all been from stem cells that can be harvested without killing the human that made them. Whether or not you agree that embryos are humans, you MUST know that harvesting their stem cells kills them. Whatever you want to call them.