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    Lift the Ban ... but Do It Nicely

    Posted Wednesday, March 11, 2009 1:43 PM | By Hanna Rosin
    Today, the Washington Post features two op-eds criticizing the president's decision to lift the ban on federally funded stem cell research, one from the more libertarian Kathleen Parker and one from the social conservative Michael Gerson. While I disagree with both of them—I'm glad he lifted the ban—I can't say he didn't deserve it. Obama's spin that he was just taking the politics and ideology out of science was coarse, glib, and just short of insulting. (See Slate's own William Saletan's warning against "Winning Smugly.") There are many areas of science President Bush handed over to unqualified political cronies in order to push certain results: Endangered species, drilling, and condoms come to mind. Stem cell research is not one of them. Like abortion, this is a legitimate moral issue with reasonable objections on all sides. The left should have learned something from the abortion debate. Eventually, the feminist movement came to regret talking about fetuses as if they were just another appendage. The left has just swiftly won the stem cell war. But as Saletan warns, "Don't lose your soul."
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