First, on the issue of adult vs. embryonic stem cells. Opponents of embryonic stem cell research often like to point out that embryonic stem cell research has never resulted in a new therapy while adult stem cell research has racked up lots of them. The explanation for this is simple: While research on adult stem cells has been going on since the 1960s, the first embryonic stem cell line was only developed in 1998, and federal restrictions on funding have hampered research for most of the time that we've had embryonic cells to work with.
Second, public funding of early-stage research here is incredibly important. If a private researcher at a biotech company discovers something about stem cells, his company moves a step forward. But when a government-funded academic researcher discovers something about stem cells and publishes it in a journal, everybody moves a step forward. Publicly funded research, here as always, has an important role to play in increasing the store of public knowledge that will advance us towards a cure.
