Indeed, and it will almost certainly progress more efficiently if it continues to be exclusively privately funded.
I’m all in favor of embryonic stem cell research, but opposed to government funding for it (just as I’m opposed to government funding for any sort of research that isn’t a clear national security priority). But, honestly, what on earth is going on in the heads of people who are pushing for federal funding for this NOW? Do they not read the headlines? Have they not heard that the federal government is urgently trying to scrounge up hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out the financial system and re-start the economy? Do they seriously imagine that the ban on federal funding for this research is the only thing standing in the way of bundles of cash pouring into their pet research projects?
There has not yet been revealed any medical reason to prefer embryonic stem cell research over its alternatives.