The President-elect said Friday that he would like to see legislation passed through Congress to allow funding of technological advancement from the Federal government in the field of stem-cell research.

A number of religious activist groups during the Bush presidency pushed heavily to see stem-cell research banned - and finally the President imposed a ban on all Federal funding towards such research, citing the arguments of the activists, that the research destroyed human life.

Obama, who sees this claim arbitrary and stifling, would like to see the ban lifted, favoring research in fields which could save human lives. He said he would be exploring an executive order to revoke the Bush ban. He suggested there was a bipartisan consensus that such research is life-saving and there are no ethical issues with the use of stem-cells for research.

The ethical issues of stem-cell research are unclear to many, though, highly dependent on the source of the cells. Currently, extraction of stem-cells does require the destruction of the embryo, however, donations of excess in vitro embryo, and other sources of entirely safe extractions seems ethically sound to most in favor of the research.

Technology which allows stem-cells to be extracted from other regions, with no requirement of a human embryo are in development and being practiced at a number of universities internationally.

Stem-cells, which are primitive cells from early stage and developmental embryos are capable of developing in to any tissue of the body - a factor which makes them infinitely valuable to the field of health and medical research. Possible implications of stem-cell research include full organ creation, and cures for such serious diseases as diabetes.

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