As pressure mounts for increased research on possible benefits from embryonic stem cells, and Bush’s half-baked compromise position founders under its own illogic and unworkability, anti-stem-cell right-wingers are muddying the waters with new proposals that – intentionally or not – serve to deflect attention away from moves to loosen federal restrictions on research funding. The supposed intention of these proposals is to identify avenues of research that would be acceptable to right-wing extremists; their effect, if endorsed by the rest of the right wing, would be to delay changes in the present policy in favor of promised alternatives that may never appear. This is the same pattern the Bush administration followed on motor vehicle emissions standards (refuse to increase environmental standards now because we can some day use the benefits of untested alternative fuel technology, which Bush offered to fund at trivial levels) and global warming (delay action indefinitely in favor of endless research to satisfy endless objections by right-wing obstructionists). If these proposals are taken seriously – as nobody but their proponents currently does – the extreme right will have succeeded in once more substituting ideological “science” for a reality-based policy in a vital health-related area.

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