Lifting the funding ban is great news. The opponents of stem-cell research have no problems with the thousands of human embryos who are created and discarded every day in fertility clinics. But they will not allow 0.1% of those embryos to contribute stem cells to be used for medical research. Unfortunately, many Americans do not understand how awesome the potential of human embryonic stem cell research is. Fortunately, medical research is proceeding in other countries. I have no doubt that multi-national biotech companies are well-aware of the differences between backward countries (America, Iran, Egypt) and more promising countries (Israel, Germany, Singapore) when it comes to medical research.