Nice articles Tomo.

In all seriousness, and in spite of all the issues regarding Dubs, the stem cell research issue was the first one that got me wondering why did he make that decision, wouldn't he have scientific advisors?

The microbiologists with degrees, and years of study and research, and the ones teaching me, commented on how a lot of leading researchers left the country soon after Dubs made the decision to only allow the 3 existing stem-cell lines for research (which the price to access for research would also surely skyrocket).

I guess the confusion came mostly b/c while people not involved in the sciences might think of the stem-cell issue as a religious one (in part to Hollywood), most of the brain-drain scientists were conducting research on how to treat diseases by regeneration of tissue types. Not making clones of themselves.

Instead of Hanyang Univerisity in South Korea, could you imagine the breakthroughs for American science, including new jobs and grant money, if we had held the press conference about how a university in the U.S.A. had created the embryonic stem cells that are the next step to regenerating new, healthy tissue in patients?

Personally, I don't think Bush thinks that far ahead, and doesn't conceive the notion that Religion can be practiced, upheld, and respected ALONG WITH advancing science technology. I remind you, people thought 'test tube babies' were sacreligious once.

Yes, plenty of confusion between therapeutic stem cell research and human cloning. The Bush administration seeks to not only ban BOTH in the U.S., they are trying to make the U.N. ban it worldwide. This is completely ridiculous. I am sure Dubya knows the difference, but does not wish to enlighten his religious constituents who currently oppose "cloning". Stem cell research still looks extremely promising for future medical therapies, and definitely would such new technology be a boon for any country who develops it. However, our current stance on the issue is already, as you mentioned, scaring many of the top researchers in the field to countries like the U.K. All in all, Bush has directly pushed medical breakthroughs many years farther into the future, which one can reasonably say causes unnecessary suffering and death. This will cause more unnecessary deaths than the War in Iraq.