[Torie]

The author admits that the potentiality of embryonic stem cells is unknown. The focus of the article is on government funding. Maybe most of it should be directed to adult cells. But the controversy was about whether to let private researchers have access to them more than about funding. Case closed as to whether we can be reasonably certain that denying the use of embryonic stem cells presents no potential impairment of medical research. Wew can't.

[Sabertooth]

Case closed as to whether we can be reasonably certain that denying the use of embryonic stem cells presents no potential impairment of medical research. We can't.

But that's a selective misrepresentation of the case.

All manner of scientific research that relies on harvesting human test subjects may have medical utility, that doesn't mean that they should be pursued with no regard for morality or ethics.

And it is the question of morality and ethics that makes funding of fetal stem cells politically problematic.

Although you've already seen this, I'll repost it for others:

For the first time, the researchers have shown that human umbilical cord stem cells, obtained after birth, can be reprogrammed to act as brain cells (neurons and glia). Until now, umbilical cord stem cells have been used to fight blood diseases in children such as leukemia.

"What we know from this is that umbilical cord blood contains stem cells able to differentiate into neural cells," Dr. Sanberg said. Stem cells are multipotent cells--able to grow into other kinds of cells.

"This finding suggests that umbilical cord blood is a noncontroversial, readily available source of stem cells for brain repair, and could provide an alternative to using embryonic cells," Dr. Sanberg said.
LINK

Reprogramming is the big hurdle. The major purported medical advantage of fetal stem cells has been their reprogrammability.

Now that it's been demonstrated that hurdle can be cleared, the case against some imperative "need" for fetal stem cell research is what is actually closed... morally, politically, and scientifically.