STEM cells have a higher profile during the 2004 presidential campaign than any other scientific issue. And Americans have a clear choice. Vote Bush, and his policy of restricting federal research into embryonic stem cells will continue. Vote Kerry and such fetters will be removed.
Yet while the battle lines appear to be clearly drawn, the political and moral landscape of the stem cell debate in the US is changing. With an election looming, Bush’s federal stem cell policy is inevitably coming under attack. And even a few Republicans are starting to question its rationale.
Many researchers believe that these…
