Aides to President-elect Obama are saying this week that Obama will reverse President Bush’s stand on embryonic stem cell research. So, according to Fox News, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan of Mexico, the Vatican health minister, said that stem cells taken from human embryos and involving the destruction of the embryos “serve no purpose.”

And he’s absolutely right. ESCR has produced no fruit while adult stem cells have done wonders. And now, scientists can create embryonic stem cells from other forms of stem cells so there’s absolutely no reason for Obama to support destroying embryos other than it would hamper his ability to demonize his political opponents for being anti-science. It really is that simple. And it is really that ghastly.

The cardinal said that embryonic stem cell research had not resulted in any significant health cure so far and was “good for nothing”.

Research on adult stem cells and umbilical cords had been shown to have “positive value”, by contrast, although even that was not “a panacea for everything.”

He said the Vatican would seek clarification of the new administration’s position on stem cells, and he himself was not “fully aware” what it was.

Obama is, of course, going to depend on two things in this. First, he’ll employ hyperbolic promises about the miraculous “promise” of ESCR to cure Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, hangovers, sunburn, botulism and dog bites. Secondly, he’ll use Joe Biden’s Catholicism as cover.

You see, Democrats love saying Republicans are anti-science even though we’re the ones who want to talk science about global warming while they scream, “The debate is over.” We’re the ones who want to make it possible for every woman to look into her womb and see the life inside of her before making any life and death decisions. They’re the ones who simply scream, “Get your Bible off my ovaries” or something charming like that.

Hmmm. I wonder what the 54 percent of Catholics who voted for Obama are thinking now? Oh wait a second. They’re not.