When President Bush banned federally-funded stem cell research in 2001, it didn’t stop the creation of hundreds of new stem cell lines. The research itself was never banned, only funding it with tax payer dollars was. California is one state that funded it’s own stem cell research all the time. But there are many companies and hospitals who have been waiting like vultures above the kill, waiting to dive in for their piece of flesh.

In March, The President signed an executive order, lifting that eight-year ban on embryonic stem cell research (read the text of the executive order here). That action sent a clear signal that the culture of death will not only continue, but grow exponentially.

Many Republicans have been pushing for the change, including John McCain. Before Obama's executive order on the subject, six so-called House moderates including Fred Upton of Michigan, Charles Dent of Pennsylvania, Brian Bilbray of California, Michael Castle of Delaware, and Mark Steven Kirk and Judy Biggert of Illinois, sent a letter to the President, saying in part: “We are writing to respectfully urge that you immediately lift the current federal restrictions on funding for embryonic stem cell research.”

The President needed little convincing, however, as he promised to overturn the ban during his campaign. He planned all the while to emphasize science over ideology, as he put it. He also plans to advance new safeguards that would protect what he terms advances in science from political and moral “interference.”

Obama's move will "restore scientific integrity in governmental decision-making," says White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes. She said funding research is also part of the administration's plan to boost the plunging U.S. economy. "Advances with regard to science and technology help advance our overall national goals around economic growth and job creation," she added.

This was echoed by Dr. Harold Varmus, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and co-chairman of Obama's science advisory council, who said on Sunday that Obama will "endorse the notion that public policy must be guided by sound, scientific advice.

But Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) committee on pro-life activities, called Obama's decision instead, "a sad victory of politics over science and ethics." "This action is morally wrong because it encourages the destruction of innocent human life, treating vulnerable human beings as mere products to be harvested," he added.

Samuel Casey of Advocates International says Obama’s order would, “give a green light to the kind of eugenic human experiments that people think of when they talk about cloning.”

The USCCB’s director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, Richard Doerflinger said: “The question is, does the Bush policy get replaced with the law of the jungle,” where scientists can create and clone human embryos for the sole purpose of studying their cells and then destroying them? “We are very concerned about this as a moral issue.”

This executive order lifted the ban, but the releasing of the tens of millions of dollars for private research companies will still have to go through Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has suggested that it won’t take much time for Congress to consider when and where the money will go.

It will allow unrestricted embryo destruction, all in the name of scientific research, using tax payer money to fund the destruction, certainly unconstitutional and unnecessary, given the promise of adult stem cell research.
 

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