Obama's Coming Stem-Cell Decision May Not Jump-Start Research

Eight years ago, President George W. Bush sharply limited federal support for stem-cell research. The move cost universities millions of dollars while slowing the hunt for life-saving medical advances. And it may now be only days before President Obama reverses course.

But for all the trouble the presidential restriction has caused, and for all the political trauma that may accompany a cancellation of Mr. Bush's order, both the science and the economics have evolved so far since 2001 that universities may feel affected far less by Mr. Obama's decision than they were by Mr. Bush's. Still, an obscure piece of legislation called the Dickey-Wicker Amendment may remain an obstacle no matter what the president does.

Mr. Obama's anticipated reversal of policy "won't be a boon the way some people might think," said Arnold R. Kriegstein, director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of California at San Francisco. "Time has moved on, and so has the field."

Stem cells are capable of growing into any type of cell of the...