As I watched President Obama lift Dubya’s ideologically driven ban on stem cell research funding live on CNN in a far away airport, I was once again truly thankful that the American people elected an intelligent (and sober!) centrist as our President. A group of eminent scientists and campaigners were there to witness the reversal:
“I feel vindicated after eight years of struggle, and I know it’s going to energise my research team,” said Dr George Daley of the Harvard stem cell institute and children’s hospital of Boston. “Science works best and patients are served best by having all the tools at our disposal.”
There will, of course, be howls of manufactured outrage engineered by mouthy patriarchal twits like Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council who want to teach creationism as science in schools and prevent all women from obtaining any form of birth control. However, to the millions whom stem cell research could help to walk again, or free from the terrible suffering of diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, this has come as a blessing.