The Senate voted to provide federal funding for stem-cell research that involves the destruction of human embryos taken from fertility clinics.

The Senate voted to provide federal funding for stem-cell research that involves the destruction of human embryos taken from fertility clinics. The debate included the usual hyperbole: Senator Lieberman and the editors of the Los Angeles Times claimed that the federal government had a "ban" on such research, and the funding was said to hold the key to curing everything from Alzheimer's disease to juvenile diabetes. The most honest proponents of embryo-destructive stem-cell research, however, are willing to admit two inconvenient truths. The first is that it is exceedingly unlikely that any such research will yield some of the most heavily advertised cures, such as for Alzheimer's. The second is that the embryos that happen to be at fertility clinics are not ideal for their purposes: They need to be able to clone human embryos on which to perform research. As time goes by, our guess is that more and more of them are going to admit a third truth: that it is possible to attain any of these research benefits without destroying human embryos at all. By vetoing this ill-considered legislation, President Bush might buy time for this truth to be generally acknowledged.