Stem Cell Confusion

I'm confused. The US Congress is about to pass a law stating that embryonic stem cell research should be funded. Tom Delay get's up and claims that no taxpayer money should be used to "dismember" these embryonic humans. Of course he forgets the fact that there are no "members" to dis. The confusing part to me is there are approximately 400,000 frozen embryos sitting in cryogenic tanks. Most of these are the byproducts of fertilization efforts. Many couples don't know what to do with these embryos so they just sit there. Many more simply tell the storage facilities to destroy the embryos. Explain to me why it's legal to destroy those embryos, but NOT to use them for research?

Let me repeat, it's legal to destroy unwanted embryos, it's illegal to donate them for research. Welcome to the Alice in Wonderland world of partisan politics.