Dear Roger Cohen:

In your article today, you write that George Bush took "fundamentalist positions on issues like stem-cell research." You are either misinformed or a complete nutjob.

Mr. Bush, contrary to popular belief, did not ban stem-cell research. The policy only affects government funded research. Privately funded research in the field has not been effected at all. In fact, Harvard and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute are spending millions, if not billions, on stem-cell research. No, President Bush's policy was that government would only pay for research on stem-cell lines that had already been created; thereby avoiding the tricky moral issue of public money paying for what some believe to be the destruction of potential life.

Now, one could argue that this limitation places undue burden on scientists or that he was trying to have his cake and eat it too by paying for research on cell lines where the morally questionable threshold had already been crossed. But it is ridiculous to state that his position on stem-cell research is fundamentalist. Unless, of course, you believe that any concern over the morality of destroying embryos is by its very nature fundamentalist. In which case, I would argue that you are a fundamentalist of a different stripe.

Sincerely,
FLG