holy crap, a soapbox post

[opabinia]

I will now preach to the choir:

Stem cells!

"Supporters of the bill say only about 10 percent of excess embryos are adopted; the rest are discarded."

"During debate on the measure dealing with umbilical cord blood, opponents of the embryonic stem cell legislation pointed out repeatedly that while adult stem cells have been proved to cure and treat patients, embryonic stem cells have not."

[Brilliant. Imagine if the development of antibiotics had been halted by the argument that surgery is proven to help recovery from bullet wounds, but antibiotics are not.]

"Embryonic stem cells [1] can become all of the body's cell types, though research on them is still in its early stages, according to the NIH.

"Adult stem cells are generally limited to differentiating into the cell types of their tissue of origin, potentially limiting their use in treatments."

[That's the difference between totipotent and pluripotent, kids. The former could be handy in ways the latter could not. Look it up.]

[1] Strictly speaking, "fertilized eggs."