Editorial: A shortsighted president

Monday, June 25, 2007 | 7:19 a.m.

In vetoing last week the legislation that would have allowed expansion of embryonic stem cell research, President Bush also issued an executive order directing federal research into producing cells that have regeneration properties like those of human stem cells.

Rather than allowing valuable research to move forward using tiny clusters of cells that provide the foundation for - but are not, in actuality - human life, Bush stopped in its tracks federally funded and important research that scientists think holds the key to cures for diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases , and other debilitating illnesses.

And what he offered in his executive order is no substitute. Capitalizing on a recent discovery in which scientists said they had used skin cells from mice to produce cells that were similar to stem cells, Bush wants the National Institutes of Health to pursue that line of research in order to produce cells with the same qualities of human stem cells. And the president did not approve any additional funding for such research.

Rather than seeing the mouse-cell discovery for what it is - another path that warrants some exploration - Bush apparently figures it is better to wait the years it will take to bring that method up to speed, while forcing scientists to use substandard human stem cells in their research or abandon their highly promising studies .

The only stem cells that can be used in federally funded research are those in existence before Bush signed an executive order Aug. 9, 2001, ending funding for science involving newer stem cells. However, researchers say, most existing cells are too old or have been contaminated.

In a recent poll by physicians from Duke University and Johns Hopkins University, 62 percent of 1,020 people who had embryos in storage said they would be willing to donate those embryos for stem-cell research.

But Bush, exhibiting a breathtaking ignorance in matters of science, will continue to stand behind his own shortsighted views.