“This is not something I took lightly. I just can’t look people in the eye right now, knowing that these embryos are going to be thrown out anyway.” Rep. Vito Fossella’s remarks came after he voted for lifting President Bush’s ban on funds for research using embryonic stem cells. Formerly a staunch anti-abortion ally, Mr. Fossella broke with Republican Party leaders, joining others who are making the same mistake because of their own personal interests.

The congressman from Brooklyn and Staten Island acknowledges that his decision was partly influenced by his son Dylan’s juvenile diabetes. Senator Specter of Pennsylvania, another advocate of embryonic stem-cell research, is suffering from Hodgkin’s disease. Other supporters are the editor Michael Kinsey and the actor Michael J. Fox, who have Parkinson’s disease. Nancy Reagan supports the research that she believes will cure the Alzheimer’s disease that destroyed her beloved Ronnie. Until now, the columnist Charles Krauthammer has not supported this type of research, but he, too, believes that as long as these embryos are scheduled to be destroyed, then it would be foolish not to utilize them.

Not everyone who has a vested interest in research for diseases has lost sight of the big picture. In a recent interview in the New York Times, the Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, said: “Respect for human life is a fundamental element of a civilized society. Lofty goals do not justify the creation of life for experimentation or destruction. My wife has multiple sclerosis, and we would dearly love for there to be a cure for her disease and for the diseases of others. But there is an ethical boundary that should not be crossed.”

Laura Bush’s father died of Alzheimer’s, as did my mother-in-law, and we both are familiar with the wake of devastation this disease leaves, but we are also aware of the actual facts involving this kind of research. It is criminal that self-serving politicians and scientists are heralding embryonic stem cells as necessary for a cure without revealing that the research has been going on for decades with no results. Here are the facts that are being ignored by the mainstream press. They were compiled by Steven Ertelt of Life-News.com, who writes:

“Embryonic stem cell research has yet to cure a single patient. Not one.

“No currently approved treatments are being used on patients as a result of research on the cells and there are no human trials. After 20 years of research on embryonic stem cells, the only results have shown they are unsafe.

“In studies, they have produced tumors, cause transplant rejection, and they have formed the wrong kind of needed replacement cells.

“That’s why private investors have funneled most of their money behind adult stem cell research.

“William Haseltine, CEO of Human Genome Sciences, is a leading advocate of embryonic stem cell research, but he agrees that results are decades away and his company is not spending money on the unproven cells.

“‘The timeline to commercialization is so long that I simply would not invest,'” Haseltine has said.

“On the other hand, adult stem cells have been used clinically about 30,000 times and, so far, more than 6,000 patients and 66 diseases have been successfully treated with stem cells from cord blood.

“Meanwhile, embryonic stem cells are not the only kind that can change into any kind of cell. Scientists at Australia’s Griffith University have ended a four year study on olfactory stem cells and found that they can be turned into heart cells, muscle cells, liver cells, brain cells, nerve cells and almost any other kind of cell in the human body.”

I wonder, Congressman Fossella, if you are aware that the City of Hope in Duarte, Calif., has already made immense strides in combating type 1 diabetes. In December 2002, I spoke with Fouad Kandeel who leads City of Hope’s clinical and research efforts in islet-cell transplantation. These islets from donated pancreases could eventually lead to the eradication of the disease. All that is needed is a campaign to increase drivers’ awareness of the importance of signing the back of their licenses to authorize organ donations in the event of an accident.

Alas, another New York congressman, Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat of Manhattan, is cleverly clouding the stem-cell debate by injecting religious bias into the issue. Accusing opponents of slandering other faiths, Mr. Nadler told The New York Sun that as a Jew he has an obligation to support the research. There are, however, many observant and Orthodox Jews who disagree.

The most important fact we need to focus on is that embryonic stem-cell research is not banned, but I don’t think tax dollars should finance what many believe is the destruction of human life.

Get George Soros to pay for it.