Squeezing orange juice from a rock?

As the Presidential Election draws very near, stem cell research is the daily buzzword in the media. Everyone bantering back and forth: "he" is for it, "she" isn't, "he" only supports some types of research, etc. It goes on and on. I decided to do some research on the topic {moving beyond what I studied in college}, because there were some questions that came to my mind. When federal funding of stem cell research is discussed, how much money are we talking about? What sort of benefits are we seeing from stem cell research? What about embryonic stem cell research - have there been any benefits from the research thus far? But I wanted real answers, not what the media is telling us.

Here are some of my findings: "Adult stem cells, such as blood-forming stem cells in bone marrow (called hematopoietic stem cells, or HSCs), are currently the only type of stem cell commonly used to treat human diseases."

The Numbers : $641 million is the amount to be spent by the National Institute of Health {NIH} on all stem cell research in FY2007 . New York State alone plans to spend $600 million on stem cell research. Read the report for more details on much goes into this.

My conclusion {of sorts}:

Why are we spending so much on embryonic stem cell research if little to no progress is being made? The moral issues that envelop this topic will be covered later; however if we know that adult stem cells are actually able to treat human diseases why not focus our attention on this. In that equation, the embryos would be left alone {therefore negating any bio-ethical debate regarding this} and we would still be able to treat diseases {which makes everyone happy}. It seems to me that in this quest to research how we can benefit from embryonic stem cells we are trying to squeeze orange juice from rocks... when we have an orange grove at our disposal. Why? Doesn't this seem a little nuts?

Additional thought: I am newly married and my husband and I are trying to set a household budget. As we are just starting out, we do not have a lot of money and life as we know it is expensive. So, we are trying to cut and save wherever possible. If we really are in such an economic crisis, wouldn't it be a wise decision to save a couple extra {million} bucks and cut back on research that isn't going anywhere?