SAN FRANCISCO - Whatever it portends for Americans elsewhere, for California the year 2005 promises pure excitement. Starting Jan. 1, the Golden State will lead the world in embryonic stem cell research.

California was able to catapult into leadership because of two related events. First, the decision by President George W. Bush in August 2001 to limit research to existing stem cell lines. Second, Californians' overwhelming support for Proposition 71 in November 2004.

Buoyed by the endorsement of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 59 percent of California voters approved Proposition 71: establishing a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and agreeing to spend $6 billion for stem cell research aimed at finding a cure for cancer, Parkinson's, diabetes and other as-yet-incurable diseases.

It's good news for California. Overnight, the nation's largest state replaces the National Institutes of Health as the world's foremost medical research center. Every year, California alone will award $300 million in grants for stem cell research, compared to a stingy $24.8 million awarded nationwide by NIH in 2004. Leading scientists and laboratories will relocate to the West Coast for the second California Gold Rush.

But what's good news for California is bad news for the rest of the country. Unlocking a cure for the worst diseases is too important a task to be left to any one state. Nobody wants bigger government, but this is one area where federal oversight is essential - to regulate how and where stem cells are created, for what purpose they're used, and how they're disposed of.

More than anything, California's sudden ownership of stem cell research proves how short-sighted President Bush was in slamming the door on science. Every argument he made for doing so has been proven wrong.

Fiction: There's no need to produce any new lines of embryonic stem cells. Existing lines give researchers everything they need.

FACT: This was the compromise on stem cells proposed by President Bush. It's pure nonsense. There are far fewer existing lines than Bush claimed - 23, as opposed to 78 - and they're not of much scientific value. They lack genetic diversity and because they were raised in mouse, not human, cultures, they risk viral contamination.

Fiction: There's no need to use stem cells from embryos, because stem cells can be taken from adult humans, and they're just as effective.

FACT: While it is possible to harvest stem cells from bone marrow or brain tissue, the very fact that they are adult cells means they are far less versatile. They simply do not offer the same potential found in stem cells from embryos. In terms of promise for new cures, medical scientists now consider adult stem cells a dead end.

Fiction: Embryonic stem cell research is the moral equivalent of murder, because embryos are little human beings with all the rights of adult human beings.

FACT: Stem cell research is about saving life, not destroying it. Stem cells gathered from embryos are visible only under the microscope. These tiny clusters of cells are incapable of surviving, even inside the Petri dish, for more than a couple of days unless frozen. The idea that, outside the womb, they are living human beings is simply absurd.

Besides, not one embryo dies as a result of stem-cell research. Every day, as part of routine scientific research, embryos are worked on, frozen or tossed out. And that's the key point: Embryos not used for research are going to be destroyed anyway - burned with the rest of the day's medical trash.

That sums up the moral choice on stem cells. What to do with 400,000 frozen embryos? Toss them in the dumpster along with the coffee grinds, orange peels and empty beer bottles? Or use them to save perhaps millions of lives?

There's no doubt which choice reflects the "greater good." And there's no doubt which choice Jesus would make.

After all, as every one of the four Gospels relates, Jesus spent most of his public ministry healing the sick. It was his life's work. And stories of his healing - St. Peter's mother-in-law, the man with the withered hand, the centurion's servant - are among the most vivid passages in Scripture.

Having cured people of leprosy, dropsy and palsy, is there any doubt that Jesus would embrace today's efforts to find a cure for Parkinson's or heart disease using embryonic stem cell research? I think not.

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