Science Finally Returns To America

The day has finally arrived. President Obama will be keeping one of his campaign promises by issuing an executive order that overturns the ban on using federal funds for stem cell research issued by his predecessor.

From The New York Times:

While lifting the Bush administration’s restrictions on federally financed human embryonic stem cell research, President Obama intends to avoid the thorniest question in the debate: whether taxpayer dollars should be used to experiment on embryos themselves, two senior administration officials said Sunday/

The officials, who provided details of the announcement Mr. Obama will make Monday at the White House, said the president would leave it to Congress to determine whether the long-standing legislative ban on federal financing for human embryo experiments should also be overturned.

President Obama's move is not a half-hearted one. He has no power to overturn a law passed by Congress; that repeal is up to the Congress, which, heartened by the new executive order, will hopefully deal with the issue this session. In the mean time, Obama has directed that appropriate ethical guidelines be drafted with respect to stem cell research receiving federal funding. Once those are in place, congressional supporters of this absolutely vital research will have the kind of political cover necessary to overcome those on the far right who are already screaming about the change in policy:

Can you believe that one Republican lawmaker, Representative Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey, is calling Obama “the abortion president,” and is planning his own event today to protest the President's new stem cell policy?

The Pro-life crowd still claims that "most Americans" will oppose opening up stem cell research, casting the issue as using embryos as guinea pigs. Clearly, Representative Smith has difficulty in counting. Hopefully he will have that same difficulty in rebutting the arguments in favor of scientific research guided by carefully crafted ethical guidelines.

There is still work to be done, but now the arena shifts to Congress. Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO), an advocate for stem cell research, hopes to take the issue out of dueling executive orders by pushing a bill through Congress which codifies Obama's order. She also believes that now may be the time to overturn Dickey-Wicker and is already trying to garner support.

It's about friggin' time.

Mark Bruno
Left Of Center
AWOP Contributor

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Peace Y'all