From what I've read, umbilical/placental stem cells appear to have the same promise as embryonic ones, in addition to being inherently "genetically pre-screened" and being available in more usable quantities than embryonic ones.
To me those factors would suggest that research in that direction would be more useful than research with embryonic stem cells. Am I wrong in my thinking somewhere?
I don't think you are wrong, but we don't know the answer and that is why one does research.