Department of Duh

Stem cells could actually help cure people.

-- The National Institutes of Health official overseeing the implementation of President Bush's embryonic stem cell policy has suggested that the controversial program is delaying cures, an unusually blunt assessment for an executive branch official.

In prepared Senate testimony, Story Landis, director of NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and interim chair of the agency's stem cell task force, closely mirrored previous testimony from other NIH officials, who have for years been careful not to criticize the Bush policy directly, even though that policy has infuriated many scientists for the limits it places on embryo cell work.