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Scores of editorials and news pages continue to follow the saga of "the Bush ban on stem-cell research." It's amazing how badly this gets the story wrong.

Stem-cell research is forging ahead, and funded by the feds. "Adult" stem-cell research, using these amazingly versatile cells taken harmlessly from cord blood and adults, is leading to cures in dozens of clinical trials—funded by the federal government.

And there is no embryo research "ban." There isn't even a "ban" on funding. In fact, President Bush is the first President ever to use federal funds for research on embryos.

To get the inside story on the "secret" stem cell debate, check out StemCellResearch.org.

There are some more bad news stories from the U.K. this week, and we can be thankful (in a rather perverse way) that a nation with which we have so much in common is eager to teach us what the future may hold—if we follow in its footsteps. Brave New Britain continues to lead the way.

Taking a further step in the use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to ensure "quality control" of embryos, the U.K. has now approved the use of genetic testing to enable a couple to have a child free of retinoblastoma.

As The Scotsman newspaper points out, "The decision breaks new ethical ground in the debate on 'designer babies,' because retinoblastoma is rarely fatal. Treatment is successful in 95 percent of cases and not all of those with the defective gene develop the disease." Dr. Calum McKellar of the Scottish Council for Human Bioethics says that because of this decision, "the floodgates for using PGD for all sorts of disorders or limitations may be open, even selecting out embryos who do not have the musical genes. Where do we stop?"

But Europe offers us illustrations at both ends of the spectrum. The U.K.'s increasingly liberal approach could hardly be more different from that in Germany, where it is illegal to create an embryo unless it will be implanted.

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Previous Life Matters columns include:

Brave New Puppy | Introducing our new life ethics weblog. (Aug. 10, 2005)

Britain Leads the (Wrong) Way | Embryos to be screened for cancer risk, "danger genes." (Aug. 17, 2005)

More CT articles on bioethics are available on our Life Ethics page.

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September (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49