In today's New York Times, this editorial points out that the recently announced new technique for obtaining stem cells without harming the embryo still faces opposition.

...religious conservatives have already denounced the technique, and the President’s Council on Bioethics, in a white paper evaluating alternative ways to produce stem cells, declared this approach “ethically unacceptable.”

Why does this country have so much trouble separating religious beliefs from government decisions? The religious right's continuing objection to embryonic stem-cell research all but guarantees that we won't see increased federal funding until at least 2008, when W is finally out of office.

As for the new technique?

Mostly it illustrates the great lengths to which scientists must go these days to shape stem cell research to fit the dictates of religious conservatives who have imposed their own view of morality on the scientific enterprise.

How and when did religious conservatives (extremists?) get so much power? And when will we decide that enough is enough?