Wednesday’s Washington Post is reporting that, once again, the Democrat-controlled Senate is revisiting the idea of taxpayer funding for embryonic stem cell research and reversing President Bush’s 2001 Executive Order barring federal funding for such research.

As is usually the case with stories about issues like this, the Senate proposal, and the Washington Post report is missing the point, because there are really two different issues here.

The first is whether it is ethical to utilize embryonic stem cells in medical research and, eventually, if the research proves successful, in the generation of stem cells that could prove beneficial in the treatment and cure of ailments ranging from cancer to Parkinson’s Disease.

The second is whether it is an appropriate function of government for taxpayer dollars to be utilized in such an endeavor.

First, the part that some of my fellow contributors and many people who might read this may have problems with.

On a scientific and ethical level, I cannot see any rational argument against the idea that research utilizing embryonic stem cells — assuming such cells are obtained in an ethical manner — should not be permitted. The potential benefit to humanity is, quite honestly enormous. We’re talking about potential cures for ailments that have plagued modern man for centuries. Weighing that against the loss of a few cells, and taking into account the suffering I’ve seen and experienced in my own family from these diseases, I cannot say that I find anything wrong with the idea of embryonic stem cell research, and I can’t say that I’d ever refuse a cure that might result from such research were I suffering from cancer or some other disease.

That said, I see no reason why the Federal Government should be involved in funding research such as this, or medical research of any kind. The state does not exist to cure cancer, or alleviate suffering. It exists for a very specific reason — to protect it’s citizens rights. As more than one contributor here has stated, medical care is best left to the private sector. I don’t want Teddy Kennedy or George Bush deciding which avenue of medical research is acceptable, I want science deciding that.

More than anything else, though, the debate over stem cell research makes it clear that it’s time that decisions like this were taken out of the hands of the state.