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Hi Hilary, Your message carries my sentiments too. From early on I've tried to unravel the logic of President Bush's policy as it pertains to the value of cells in a petri dish and the value of the lives of men and women who are being killed daily in Iraq. I do not believe the blastocysts in the laboratory are human. I know that the people dying in Iraq are human. I also know that the men, women and children who are suffering and dying from the ravages of disease that embryonic stem cell research has a potential to cure are living, breathing human beings too. How can it be that the "culture of life" applies only to those cells in a dish and not to our enlisted personnel and those who are dying from disease? Why would President Bush rather see these cells disposed of as waste rather than for the good of mankind? Adoption? That is a wonderful option! But...are all of the 400,000 or more blastocysts going to be adopted? What about those remaining? Should they be thrown in a trash can or used for common good? It appears (from the reports on the South Korean breakthrough) that development of genetically matched stem cell lines (SCNT) is most successful using donated "fresh" eggs from women around 30 years old or younger. They have been able to develop far more lines with far fewer eggs with this new technique. If this holds true, it could make using frozen embryos a less effective method. But, of course, there will then be an outcry to ban egg donation on the premise that women are being exploited. Our government should fund this research with ethical guidelines in place and permit people to make their own decision about whether to donate blastocyts or eggs. Dee ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn