The better alternative to embryonic stem cells

It's not exactly breaking news that stem cells from amniotic fluid may well be just as good as, or even superior to, those from embryos where potential cures for Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's, and the other such ills are concerned. That's the dirty little secret the advocates of Missouri's Amendment 2 and other pro-embryotic stem cell referenda last November succeed in confusing so many voters about.

But Charles Krauthammer has some thoughts on the subject which, as usual, are worth considering. I happen to disagree with him, and agree with President Bush, on use even of fertility clinic embryos destined for destruction in any case. The acceptance of such use would only sear the consciences of the culture further where the unborn are concerned; the ethics of the very creation of such "disposable" embryos need to be revisited.

But I completely agree with Krauthammer that amniotic fluid is ethically a vastly superior source of experimental and theraputic stem cells than living embryos, and an utterly uncontroversial one, at that. And I will go further than he does, and frankly state my opinion that, to a disturbing degree, the rush to use embryonic stem cells rather than to investigate viable alternatives is motivated by neither science nor by compassion. Rather, in many cases, it strikes me as being the pursuit of a purely political and social agenda: making the casual termination of unborn human life as routine and accepted a practice as possible.