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Source: Obama to reverse limits on stem cell work
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-07 14:32 "America's biomedical research enterprise experienced steady decline over the past eight years, with shrinking budgets and policies that elevated ideology over science. This slowed the pace of discovery and the search for cures," said Sean Morrison, director of the University of Michigan's Center for Stem Cell Biology. Critics immediately denounced the move. "Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for experiments that require the destruction of human life," said Tony Perkins of the conservative Family Research Council. "President Obama's policy change is especially troubling given the significant adult stem cell advances that are being used to treat patients now without harming or destroying human embryos."
But even researchers who work with varying types consider embryonic stem cells the most flexible and thus most promising form -- and say that science, not politics, should ultimately judge. "Science works best and patients are served best by having all the tools at our disposal," Daley said. Obama made it clear during the campaign he would overturn Bush's directive. During the campaign, Obama said, "I strongly support expanding research on stem cells. I believe that the restrictions that President Bush has placed on funding of human embryonic stem cell research have handcuffed our scientists and hindered our ability to compete with other nations." He said he would lift Bush's ban and "ensure that all research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight." "Patients and people who've been patient advocates are going to be really happy," said Amy Comstock Rick of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research. The ruling will bring one immediate change: As of Monday, scientists who've had to meticulously keep separate their federally funded research and their privately funded stem cell work -- from buying separate microscopes to even setting up labs in different buildings -- won't have that expensive hurdle anymore. Next, scientists can start applying for research grants from the National Institutes of Health. The NIH already has begun writing guidelines that, among other things, are expected to demand that the cells being used were derived with proper informed consent from the woman or couple who donated the original embryo.
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