Newsweek asks, “Do you think the federal government should lift restrictions on stem-cell research?”

There are in fact no restrictions on stem cell research in the United States.* Using private or state funds, researchers can carry out whatever research they wish. The question is whether the federal government should subsidize research on embryonic stem cell lines where the embryos in question were destroyed after President Bush’s policy went into effect. (Hat tip: reader Mark Eichenlaub.)

Newsweek’s next survey question: “Do you think that guards at Guantanamo Bay should stop flushing copies of the Koran down the toilet?”

* Update, 7:44 am: Let me make this clearer: the absence of a governmental subsidy is not the same thing as a governmental restriction. If that were true, then I could claim that michellemalkin.com is restricted by the government, since it is not federally subsidized. Newsweek’s survey would have been accurate if it had said, “”Do you think the federal government should lift restrictions on federally subsidized stem-cell research?”