Human Cloning Marches On, Without U.S. Help:

...if American researchers lose their technical lead, Washington will also forfeit the chance to set the ethical rules of the game.

...last week's announcement in Seoul highlighted the limits of the American approach. The rest of the world is not standing still, and deriving new cell lines is an important part of progress.

"By this policy we are ceding leadership in what may be one of the most important medical advances for the next 10 to 15 years," said Dr. Irving Weissman, a stem cell researcher at Stanford University. He also expressed disappointment that the Korean advance could not have been made in the United States. "That's a very telling lesson for us,'' he said. "It says we are going to watch it happen."

...

Politics aside, Dr. Kass and many other ethicists feel strongly that medical progress is not an absolute good that should be allowed to override all other values, like the natural limits on human life and the cycle of generations...

All in all, another triumph for the backward-looking.