Next Steps for Progressive Stem Cell Politics

The long-awaited stem cell announcement expected soon after inauguration day will be a welcome corrective to the Bush administration’s restrictions. As we anticipate a new policy—one that loosens federal funding for research using stem cell lines created with in vitro fertilization embryos not needed for reproductive purposes—let’s also take a good look at how to change the politics of stem cell research.

For the past eight years, the stem cell debate has been notable for its divisiveness. Controversy formed along the embryo divide; many liberals and progressives came to their positions in reaction to the Bush stem cell policy and the theological beliefs that helped motivate it.

In several election cycles, embryonic stem cell research became both hot potato and partisan wedge. Opponents persisted in absolutist rejection, while supporters countered with promises of imminent cures for diseases that, in a frequent hyperbolic refrain, “affect 128 million Americans.” The din of the stem cell war all but drowned out discussion of the non-embryo issues that stem cell research can pose.

But we should be able to conduct stem cell politics—and science...