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That's a quote from a flier announcing the creation of the Stem Cell PAC—designed to oppose candidates who support the President's policy on embryonic stem-cell funding. Various dignitaries are associated with the project, including Hollywood mogul Jerry Zucker and Colorado Rep. Diane DeGette. Its key statements are all lies. Not exaggerations, spin, or rhetoric: lies.

It is interesting to speculate where they came from, just as Dr. Woo-suk Hwang's cloning lies are hard to explain. What they have in common is perhaps wishful thinking. The demonizing of the Bush stem-cell policy has played a big part in the portrayal of the administration as "anti-science."

For the record: While the Clinton administration was looking for ways around the congressional prohibition on destructive embryo research, it did not spend one dime on it. President Bush's policy of funding work on cell lines from embryos that had been destroyed before he made his speech was a modest liberalizing of existing policy—and, indeed, was attacked by many conservative groups at the time. And when it comes to stem cell science, listen to this from The Scientist:

In terms of total number of stem cell publishing, however, U.S.-based scientists have by far authored the most stem cell articles, some 13,663 in 2000-2004—42 percent of total articles. Germany came in second with 10.2 percent of the total, followed by Japan, the U.K., France, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden.

It's worth noting that in Germany, which comes in second, an exact parallel to the Bush policy is in place. But the difference is worth noting. If you kill embryos for research in the U.S., you don't get federal dollars. If you do it in Germany, you can get five years' jail time. Somehow, German scientists still manage to outperform the U.K. (where the laws are the most liberal in the world).

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Previous Life Matters columns include:

Our Cloning Friends, the Brits | The U.K. and disaffected American researchers lash out at U.S. cloning laws. (March 17, 2006)

The Truth, the Partial Truth, and Nothing but Evasions | How to sell unethical science. (March 2, 2006)

The Pursuit of Enhancement | The latest from Brave New Britain. (Feb. 22. 2006)

Poaching Eggs | The latest sad story from the Korean soap opera—and a lack of Talent in Missouri (Feb. 17, 2006)

The State of the Human | President Bush sets out a vital agenda for ethics. (Feb. 2, 2006)

Are You My Sperm Donor? | Plus: Another Hwang turn, more small surprises, and other life ethics stories. (Jan. 26, 2006)

Breeding Humans Like Rabbits? | From the frying pan into the fire. (Jan. 20, 2006)

The Prospects for 2006 | Deeper into the (Christian?) biotech century. (Jan. 9, 2006)

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

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March (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50