President Obama has reversed the ban on federal funding of Embryonic Stem Cell Research. There are a number of misconceptions about what the law was prior to this change and about what the change means. According to an article in the Washington Times:
"Extracting embryonic stem cells for research kills the embryo, which is why many pro-life groups oppose both the research and the use of taxpayer dollars to fund it. Mr. Bush had limited federal funding only to those lines that existed when he issued his executive order in 2001, arguing those embryos already had been destroyed and thus the life-or-death decision already had happened."
Since the 2001 ban put in place by President Bush, a few things have happened.
1. Reported in an August 22, 2005 article in the Washington Post, scientists can now take skin cells and turned them into what appear to be embryonic stem cells -- without having to use human eggs or make new human embryos in the process, as has always been required in the past, a Harvard research team announced yesterday. This article states that:
"Since the new stem cells in this technique are essentially rejuvenated versions of a person's own skin cells, the DNA in those new stem cells matches the DNA of the person who provided the skin cells. In theory at least, that means that any tissues grown from those newly minted stem cells could be transplanted into the person to treat a disease without much risk that they would be rejected, because they would constitute an exact genetic match."
2. There has been progress in the area of umbilical stem cell research, leading to the formation of such groups as CorCell which saves a baby's umbilical cord blood when the baby is born.
Again, the ban was never on embryonic stem cell research--it was on the federal funding of that research. Also, as the Obama Administration has planned a government takeover of health care, why is this research necessary? Socialized medicine is not fertile ground for medical research because every medical procedure is viewed through a prism of cost effectiveness--ask elderly people in Britain who have been denied treatments because of their age. Also, if medical research truly felt that there were major breakthroughs to be made in embryonic stem cell research, wouldn't private corporations be funding it? Repealing the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research is simply grandstanding to please to liberal base that elected Barack Obama as President.
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