The issue of embryonic stem cell research was certainly a very important topic in the 2004 presidential election, as the opinions of President Bush and Senator Kerry on this issue were polar opposites. Many have very strong feelings either for or against embryonic stem cell research, and it has been hypothesized that some of them would not have been motivated to vote if the candidates had not presented such contrary views. The issue whether or not to provide government funding for embryonic stem cell research also led to an important proposition on California’s ballot in the 2004 election, which passed to allow state funding to build a stem cell research center. Obviously, the issue of stem cell research has reached a political climax.

            Despite the importance of this issue in the election, many people seemed to have misunderstood the candidates’ positions on stem cell research. As USA Today columnist Greg Barrett puts it, “The way Democratic Senator John Kerry tells it, embryonic stem-cell research is the Holy Grail of medicine, a miraculous cure-all ripe for the picking. The way President Bush tells it, the possibilities are uncertain and the science encroaches on the sanctity of life.” [1] Throughout his campaign, Kerry was supported by various ill celebrities, such as Michael J. Fox and the late Christopher Reeve, who seemed to echo the Senator’s claim that an increased level of government funding would very rapidly lead to advances in science and quick cures for those afflicted with numerous diseases. This same view was expressed by Ron Reagan, the son of former President Ronald Reagan, who recently died of Alzheimer’s related complications, in his speech at the Democratic National Committee.

            However, this view of embryonic stem cell research as an immediate and sure cure for numerous afflictions is a bit misleading. Although it is a fact that many advances have been made recently in the study of medical uses for stem cells, very few of these discoveries have involved the use of embryonic stem cells at all. Likewise, all of the stem cell treatments that have yet been performed have used adult stem cells. Moreover, the study of stem cells and their medical applications is, like all scientific processes, a slow procedure that requires a great deal of patience to be done correctly. Consequently, it was more than slightly deceptive for Kerry’s campaign to proclaim the benefits of embryonic stem cell research as if they would arrive almost immediately after larger amounts of federal funding were provided.

            On the other hand, President Bush is the first president to have ever provided federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. In 2001, he proclaimed that federal funding would be given for the study of about sixty embryonic stem cell lines that had already been put aside for use in embryonic stem cell research. At the time, it was believed that all sixty of these lines were able to be used in research. Bush decided that, after these stem cell lines had been used in the research, the federal government would provide no further funds for the study of embryonic stem cells. This is not, however, an across-the-board ban on all embryonic stem cell research. However, many opponents of Bush’s policies, such as MSNBC contributor Arthur Caplan, claim that “prohibiting the expenditure of federal funds on embryonic stem-cell research after August 2001 is a ban. It is a ban of limited scope but a ban it most certainly is.” [2]