Well, I don’t have Bush’s words at hand and so don’t know exactly what he said. From my standpoint, there is a huge difference between those responsible for creating the embryos deciding to trash them and deciding to use them for medical research. The immediate result is the same, of course: the death/destruction of the embryo. The long-term result is what I call the Feedstock Principle.

I first developed and articulated this principle (for myself only) after being the engineer for several solid waste districts. Each day they struggled to dispose of mounds of trash at a reasonable cost to the rate-payers. We designed a new landfill, and my engineering feasibility report became part of the package for issuing revenue bonds. The only way investors would buy such bonds was if all governments having any jurisdiction would pass ordinances stating that all the trash in the district must be disposed of in the landfill financed by those bonds. To potential bondholders, the solid waste was a source of revenue. To let that waste go elsewhere was detrimental to the bondholders. It thus ceased to be waste and became feedstock—raw material in a process of converting farmland to future, undetermined final use. In fact, the potential investors would have opposed efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle had State law not mandated these.

If you use embryos for research, they cease to be surplus, unwanted life forms and become feedstock in the medical research process. Once you have a need for this feedstock, an ‘industry’ will sprout to produce the feedstock. You will find people creating embryos just for the purpose of selling them for stem-cell research. This would likely happen only after the current supply is exhausted. I understand that supply is rather large, and thus the ‘embryo mill industry’ will be a while in coming.

This probably seems like minutia to you, but I find no other way to handle it and be consistent with principles.

I still understand that embryonic stem cell research continues. It continues with Federal funds in strains created before August 2001, and it probably continues without Federal funds in strains created after this. Also, much research is going on with non-embryonic stem cells—with Federal funding. I reject the notion that Federal funding is the only potential source of money for this research. If it is important enough, with demonstrated potential of success, the funds will come regardless of whether the Federal government chooses to participate.

Best Regards,
DAT