Democrats have been spending ample time planning for next years elections. Specifically, on the topic of embryonic stem cell research. But a breakthrough by Japanese and American research teams could give President Bush and those who mirror his sentiments more than enough support to end the debate.

Progress in embryonic stem cell research was potentially blocked earlier this year when President Bush vetoed two separate bills which were in favor of allocating taxpayer dollars for the science.

The destruction of human embryos was not necessary in order for medical advances to be made in the field of stem cell science advocated Bush.

He may have been on the right track with his statements. On Tuesday, two separate research teams from Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reported stem cell advances that could end the controversy over embryo use forever.

The journals Cell and Science published papers by both teams on Tuesday regarding the breakthrough. Science published the work of Junying Yu, who was working in the lab of stem-cell pioneer James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Cell published a paper by the team led by Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University.

Both teams were able to take regular human cells, in this case skin cells, and use a technique called