The Roman god Janus is depicted as two faces, one looking right and one looking left. There is an enzyme named after him, JAK, and January is attributed to be his namesake. The god of doorways....

 I think of the images of Janus whenever I read about the legal battle over stem cell research. Federal funding was restricted under Bush, and then it was reopened (to some extent) by Obama. There are advocates and opponents for both adult and embryonic. And then there's the most opposite of all:

A federal judge placed on injunction on federal spending on stem cell research because a current lawsuit is likely to show that Obama's policy violates a law about destroying embryos in research.  Meanwhile, the FDA has greenlighted the first human trials for embryonic stem cell therapy.

So an embryo (a collection of cells with the potential to be human tissues) is destroyed but an already human life may be saved or given better quality. 

The worst part I think is that the lawsuit trying to prevent federal funding of embryonic stem cell research was brought by two researchers interested in adult stem cells - they argue that by funding embryonic stem cells they won't get money for adult stem cells. It's all about the money! 

Adult stem cells have repeatedly been shown to be both beneficial and not as good (potential-wise) as embryonic stem cells. The problem is that they have markers indicating who and where they come from that makes them limited in their applications. Embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, are like clean slates, if we can only figure out how to program them properly. 

Two sides at battle that really should be working together...much like a face that pulls you in two different directions.