John Tierney makes an excellent point today (TimesDelete). Unlike me, he favors embryonic stem cell research (I have serious ethical qualms), but he’s not concerned about restrictions on federal funding for the research. Money quote:
Even before this week’s veto, anger over the ban has prompted states and private philanthropists to put up their own money. They’ve committed well over $3 billion to this research in the next decade, which might be more than Washington would have provided anyway ‚Äî and the federal money would have come with strings attached.
Stem-cell researchers can benefit from the freedom enjoyed by scientists who developed in vitro fertilization, which Washington also refused to finance because it was originally denounced as immoral. The absence of federal involvement sped progress by allowing unregulated private labs and clinics to innovate.
Libertarianism and federalism triumph again. And Bush, despite some of the heated rhetoric, isn’t actually proposing banning this stuff in the private sector or in the states. If I were a Bushie, I’d be asking why this point isn’t more generally understood.
The Dish 