re: politics
Most of the politics is hype anyway.
When you shave all the misleading hyperbole away from it, the only issue is direct Federal funding of embryonic research involving new embyronic lines outside of an already-approved cell line.
That's it.
Federal funding for approved-line embryonic stem cell research has been passed, approximately $100 million over the past few years.
Nobody is trying to ban embryonic stem cell research. Funding from state and other sources, which is not subject to any restrictions, already dwarfs the Federal program.
Nobody is trying to stop "stem cell research." (the word "embryonic" is left off the term quite often for effect)
This issue, like global warming, has become a convenient political hammer, and not much more.