Bush Stem Cell Policy Worse Than Clinton's.

The New York Times reported on August 18th that scientists "may find there are fewer restrictions on research with embryonic stem cells under the Bush administration than they would have faced under the Clinton administration, whose guidelines have been scrapped." The abolition of the Clinton guidelines, says the Times, means that researchers can now use, among other sources, the embryonic stem cells first derived in 1998 by Dr. James A. Thomson of the University of Wisconsin, which did not comply with the Clinton administration guidelines."

In an op-ed for the New York Times on August 12th, President Bush stated: "Some of the hardest ethical decisions pit the good against the good. In the case of stem cells, the promise of miracle cures is set against the protection of developing life." Attempting to justify his "pro-life" position to "encourage research on embryonic stem cells that already exist," Bush stated: "While it is unethical to end life in medical research, it is ethical to benefit from research where life and death decisions have already been made."