It's hard to find such a short article with so many misrepresentations approaching outright lies as the one by Tim Macaluso on "stem-cell economy."

1) Despite what Professor Mark Noble may think or say, "access to human embryonic stem-cells suitable for clinical use" was never "resisted," let alone denied, by the Bush administration. Embryonic stem-cell research is NOT illegal. Mark Noble was always free to conduct the research had he had the properly equipped lab and the money. And being that he thinks this research holds such "tremendous promise," he should have had no problem finding venture capitalists - of the "greedy" type, of course - to finance him.

All Bush could do, and had the authority to do, was deny him "federal" funds, that is, taxpayers' money. An ethical issue was at stake, and Bush's "resistance" consisted in not sanctioning with federal funds an immoral pursuit.

2) Obama did no such thing as "free science from political agendas." On the contrary, by releasing federal funds for research on embryonic stem cells, he tied in double knots the research to the political agenda of abortion and all life-denying and life-destructive procedures. Because, you see, embryonic stem-cell research has nothing to do with curing diabetes or Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease, and everything to do with legitimizing abortion. If you can create an embryo and then proceed to destroy it in order to harvest embryonic stem cells, then what's wrong with killing a fetus?

3) By the third paragraph, we come to the rub: the URMC received $6.8 million in stem-cell research grants, part of the $100 million recently authorized by Governor Paterson in New York State. So there you have it: The welfare queen, which is what the URMC is, got its handouts to conduct a research that all evidence tells us holds no promise. If it did, it would need no public funds.

But the professor, revealing his true colors, ends by repeating the Obamanesque bromides that, given the $30 billion we spend annually on one disease (diabetes), this research is an "investment, not just in our health-care system, but in our economic stability."

Please!!!

ITALO SAVELLA, GREECE