Day one of the Barack Obama Administration, a mere ten weeks away, will witness a dramatic shift toward the pro-cures movement in this country. The freshly inaugurated Obama will almost certainly lift restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research.
The president-elect supported the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, legislation twice vetoed by President Bush. Here’s then-Senator Obama back in 2007 when the Act last came up for a vote:
Clearly, we are moving backwards in our efforts with these current restrictions. Stymieing embryonic stem cell research is a step in the wrong direction. It closes the door on many Americans awaiting new treatments that could potentially provide a better quality of life, or, perhaps, even save their life.
My hope, and the hope of so many in this country, is to provide our researchers with the means to explore the uses of embryonic stem cells so that we can begin to turn the tide on the devastating diseases affecting our nation and the world.
Bush policy allowed research on only what amounted to 21 stem cell lines available as of August 2001. As
Bernard Siegel of the Genetics Policy Institute puts it, “His rationale being that funding on embryonic stem cell lines created after that date would somehow make the government complicit in the future destruction of human life.”
Clearly, Obama and millions of Americans don’t buy the old argument. In Michigan, ballot, Proposition 2 was passed; it will lift the state’s restrictions on embryonic stem cell research.
In Colorado, Proposition 48 was scorched by voters. This proposed constitutional amendment would have redefined a fertilized egg as a person, virtually criminalizing certain areas of research. Over 70 percent of voted against the initiative.
Meantime the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) and other major stem cell advocacy groups are stepping up the pressure to make sure Obama does what they all believe he will. “President-Elect Obama can rejuvenate science and research in the U.S.,” ISSCR President Fiona Watt said. “Millions of patients will be looking to him and to the promise of stem cell research.”
ISSCR has made available an
open letter outlining the importance of an unfettered stem cell science. Sign on if you want to add your voice.
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