Look closely... the Fed numbers are on ALL lines of stem cell research... and the states and private are both beating the Fed. The total of stem cell funding by the fed DOUBLED from 1999-2003, then remained relatively stagnant since then.
The whole point is that the State and Private funding took the place of the Fed on this issue. Thus, Lorax's argument that by "the fed not funding embryonic stem cell research" the research was set back is false.
THAT was my point. That just because the fed wasn't funding this line doesn't mean the line of research suffered. In contrast, some states are now investing into genetic research for the first time. CA has committed $3b over the next decade. Money that would otherwise not have been spent on this type of research before. Private funding also escalated beyond the norm for this type of investing.
They picked up the slack when the fed backed off.
SF, let me put this in simple terms, so that my simple mind can get around it. You are saying:
The Feds spend 5.00 on research in 1999, and doubled it to 10.00 by 03, where it has stayed.
Since that time, states have spent more than the 10.00 the feds spent. So since the states have stepped up and increased their own spending to the point that they match or perhaps exceed what the feds spend, then there has been no overall lowering of available research dollars.
If that is not correct please let me know, I get confused when a lot of figures are thrown around.
Now, I can see that this would be correct on its face. However...you are comparing the only federal figures available to us, and those are figures under the bush adminstration. Simply put, this was not a field in the Clinton admistration. I have seen people say "Bush is the first president to spend any federal dollars on stem cell research" as if this was an issue in the 90's and Clinton vetoed it or refused to fund it. We have the spending of ONE adminstration to go by and that is an adminstration hostile to stem cell research, and frankly, to science in general.
My point is, that's great that the states are spending some money in an attempt to make up for bush refusing to, but if we had a adminstration that resided in the 21st century and to whom this was a priority as it shoudl be, then the federal government could and would dwarf any state spending just as they always have, and then you would see some shit getting done.
And I don't want to hear about how some people find it "immoral" I don't care. No one cared when I found it immoral, and outright criminal to drop bombs on Iraq, I can tell you that. The fact is only a very small, very radical, and very loud minority of Americans believe cells are human beings.
