[eraser2005]

And limiting federal funding based on a moral argument is a good approach. Limiting it making a claim that adult stem cells have provided treatments while embryonic have not, and ignoring that ASC research had a 30 year head start on embryonic is not a good approach. Arguing that ASC research will provide all the same "benefits" of ESC research is not a good approach, as no one knows the possible results of ESC research at this early stage. Arguing that ESC research is futile and using lack of private funding I think is the worst argument, considering that private funding hardly will ever be provided for something without short-to-medium range return.

However, arguing this purely on moral grounds is the best argument.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Arguing that ESC research is futile and using lack of private funding I think is the worst argument, considering that private funding hardly will ever be provided for something without short-to-medium range return.

I think we agree to a certain degree. I don't know if I'd use the word "worst" in an absolute sense though, but perhaps in the context of the three or four arguments presented in your post.

Here's what I mean: venture capitalists invest millions of dollars for long-term big payoff projects, and certainly not every breakthrough in technology has come through massive infusions of taxpayers dollars. Why should ESC be any different than the non-taxpayer funded research?

I think we both agree ESC research is a slippery slope, as it destroys a human life--and a human life should not be a commodity.

[mjaneangels@aolcom]

"Arguing that ASC research will provide all the same "benefits" of ESC research is not a good approach, as no one knows the possible results of ESC research at this early stage. Arguing that ESC research is futile and using lack of private funding I think is the worst argument, considering that private funding hardly will ever be provided for something without short-to-medium range return."

Here is the dirty little secret. There have been adult stem cells that have been found more recently than human embryonic stem cells, and these adult stem cells already have more proof to cure than what the embryonic stem cells have proven, even though embryonic stem cells have been funded, around the world, to a much larger extent than the new adult stem cells.