President Barack Obama is reversing yet another Bushism–the ban on federal funding for stem cell research. Now, not to sound like a broken record, but I would have had some respect for Bush’s lofty goal of preserving life in the pre-embryo stage if he really did give a hoot about preserving life in general. But as we all know, the planet is littered with dead and mangled bodies, due directly and indirectly to Bush policies. One of my favorites was cutting funding to the VA, so that our veterans, many with significant physical and mental injuries, would receive less care.

Anyway, here is Barack, announcing yet another step forward:

Oh yes, there are plenty of whiners and moaners about how this is “legalizing” murder, and about the holocaust of pre-embryos that this is going to create. And a lot of these people support the Iraq war, capitol punishment, cutting funding to social services that help care for the babies and children that they feel so passionately about in the embryonic stage….the same story, life is only sacred before it is born.

The second question is what to do about pre-embryos chilling out in limbo. Some of them have been in deep freeze for over a decade, and may not even be viable. So, it is better to destroy the pre-embryo than use it for stem cells? Because that is going to be the choice in most cases. Unless “you” want to implant it into your body, give birth and raise, the fate of the hundreds of thousands of pre-embryos (leftovers from in-vitro procedures mostly) is the toilet (literally). Or sitting forever in deep freeze. I would love to hear some input on that problem from those who are opposed to stem cell research.

Personally, I think that there do need to be better regulations and guidelines, when it comes to creating embryos that will never be used. This is a whole topic in and of itself, but the fertility industry has behaved much like the wild west, and I think its time to take a close look at what’s going on–whether its some cowboy doctor who thinks its cool to implant 8 embryos at a time into a young woman who already had given birth to 6 children, or parents who are keeping 10 pre-embryos on ice and refuse to put them up for adoption but also who have no intention of ever seeing them become babies.