…..first ask ‘which kind?’, to clarify if the topic is embryonic or adult or cord blood (or other) stem cells.

If it’s embryonic research, says bioethics expert Wesley J. Smith, look further into what the ultimate goal of that science actually is.

I have been saying for years that the great stem cell debate isn’t really about leftover embryos due to be destroyed anyway. That was just the pretext, an opening gambit intended to desensitize people  to the idea that nascent human life can be treated as nothing more than a corn crop.  The real goal is human cloning, first for stem cells and later for use in genetic engineering experiments, fetal farming, and eventually, reproductive cloning.

And it will be easier to usher in if the issue remains largely under public radar. Once it’s further accepted, it’s not such a leap to getting it out of the hands of the people, anyway, no matter what they know or think.

Indeed, where these policy lines are drawn is what the democratic process should be all about–although as I have also predicted, once there is a perceived friendly Supreme Court, expect “the scientists” to sue for a constitutional right to conduct scientific research free from any meaningful constraint by the great unwashed.