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Obama to Lift Restrictions on Stem Cell Research Funding
Fox News
March 9, 2009
President Obama plans to sign an executive order Monday lifting restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, in the latest reversal of his predecessor's policies.
The move fulfills a campaign promise, and supporters say it will open up a broad front of research to find better treatments for ailments from diabetes to Parkinson's disease.
The goal, administration officials told FOX News, will be to allow federal researchers access to more available lines of embryonic stem cells than currently exist.
Embryonic stem cells are master cells that can morph into any cell of the body. Scientists hope to harness them so they can create replacement tissues to treat a variety of diseases.
But the issue remains controversial since days-old embryos must be destroyed to obtain the cells.
Opponents argue that research using embryonic cells is morally wrong.
"I believe it is unethical to use human life, even young embryonic life, to advance science," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative organization.
Obama on Monday also planned to make a broad declaration that science -- not political ideology -- would guide his administration.
"I would simply say this memorandum is not concerned solely -- or even specifically -- with stem cell research," said Harold Varmus, chairman of the White House's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology and a Nobel Prize-winning biologist. He said it would address how the government uses science and who is advising various federal agencies.
Obama plans to use the executive order and accompanying memo to signal his commitment to shift government's priorities.
Former President George W. Bush was the first president to authorize any federal support for embryonic stem cell research but limited it to 78 known stem cell lines -- lines that were created before Aug. 9, 2001. Federal research dollars could not flow to any research on embryonic stem cell lines derived after that deadline, and some scientists objected that the Bush policy left them with too few stem cell lines to research, and that only 16 of the original 78 were even suitable.
Hundreds more of such lines -- groups of cells that can continue to propagate in lab dishes -- have been created since then. Scientists say those newer lines are healthier and better suited to creating treatments for diseases. The Obama order will give researchers access to lines derived after Aug. 9, 2001.
The proposed changes do not fund creation of new lines, nor specify which existing lines can be used. They mean that scientists, who until now have had to rely on private donations to work with these newer stem cell lines, can apply for government money for the research, just like they do for studies of gene therapy or other treatment approaches.
At the same event, the president planned to announce safeguards through the National Institutes of Health to protect science from political interference.
Senior Obama officials would not describe how broadly the executive order will open up lines for research, saying only that it will reverse Bush-era restrictions.
Rep. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, said the focus should be on the economy, not on a long-simmering debate over stem cells.
"Frankly, federal funding of embryonic stem cell research can bring on embryo harvesting, perhaps even human cloning that occurs," he said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "We don't want that. ... And certainly that is something that we ought to be talking about, but let's take care of business first. People are out of jobs."
Perkins argued that taxpayers should not have to pay for "experiments that require the destruction of human life."
"I urge President Obama to direct funding not only to the best science, but also to the surest common ground -- research using adult stem cells and stem cells created by reprogramming," he said.
Dr. Curt Civin, whose research allowed scientists to isolate stem cells and who now serves as the founding director of the University of Maryland Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, said that type of rhetoric was not helpful.
"This was already life that was going to be destroyed," he said. "The choice is throw them away or use them for research."
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