What About Embryonic Stem Cell Research, Mr. President?
By Frank CocozzelliSun Feb 22, 2009 at 01:48:47 PM EST print story
It has now been over one month since President Obama was
inaugurated. As someone who stands to benefit from the proper federal
funding and oversight of embryonic stem cell research, I want to know why
the President has yet to rescind the Bush administration restrictions of
August 9, 2001 that were one of his signature appeasements to the Religious
Right.
topic: Attack on Science
In the 2008 New York Presidential Primary I voted for Hillary Clinton. One
of the deciding factors for me was her promise to rescind the Bush
administration's onerous restrictions on the federal funding of embryonic
stem cell research. At the time, then-candidate Obama was barely giving
lip-service to the issue.
Although Obama eventually won the nomination, I soon became comfortable with
his position on embryonic stem cell research. I was confident that shortly
after his inauguration - perhaps within minutes -- that the August 9, 2001
restrictions would be history.
Or, so I thought.
It now seems that the president is now awaiting Congressional legislation
that would fund the research. That may be well and good, but an immediate
executive order rescinding the August 9, 2001 restrictions is still
necessary. At the very least it would allow research laboratories more
leeway in their current work.
As the The Baltimore Sun recently reported:
Little federal research has been conducted on human embryonic stem cells
over the past eight years. In 2007, for example, the federal government
allocated a mere $41 million to this research, compared with approximately
$400 million invested by the states last year. The federal funding ban made
it extremely difficult to attract young or new researchers to stem cell
research, while prompting many established investigators to look elsewhere
to conduct their work. The lack of progress in embryonic stem cell research
has held back venture capital investment in this field as well.
The Sun prevously reported that universities and other research centers are
wary to begin this important work:
Researchers and their institutions are also hopeful that lifting the Bush
administration's ban would end a logistical nightmare. Fear of violating the
federal edict forced researchers to keep everything from pipettes to
buildings paid for with federal dollars separate from anything and anyone
involved with stem cell lines not approved for federal funding.
"It's going to make a huge difference," said Dr. Chi Dang, vice dean for
research at the Johns Hopkins University's Institute for Cell Engineering.
"Especially if I'm an investigator working on both types of cell lines, I
have to be very careful. ... It's been a nightmare for some institutions."
Amy Comstock Rick, president of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical
Research, one of the leading advocacy organizations for this research, was
spot-on when she recently declared, "Time matters, and we would really like
to see an executive order out of the White House rescinding the Bush
policy."
The issue of stem cell research extends into a larger issue: freedom of
conscience. And to stand up for embryonic stem cell research is often
synonymous with standing up to both the Religious Right and their
neoconservative backers.
In an earlier article I outlined what so upsets ultra-orthodox Catholics,
hard-line evangelicals and neocons about this issue:
But the greater issue here is Modernity. Both Straussian-neoconservatives as
well as ultra-orthodox Catholics rail against it. Their common opposition to
hESC research is classic manifestation of such a belief. Value Pluralism is
not acceptable, only submission by all to one selective version of "the
truth." Embryonic stem cell research clearly interferes with this scenario
because it begins to demystify science and in their eyes, removes the virtue
of human heroism (something Eric Cohen has elaborated upon in his writings).
It is the very same obsession with modernity that leads this strident
alliance to also lash out against feminism, reproductive rights and at
times, evolution. So it is puzzling why President Obama is dragging his
heals on this issue.
Is he still trying to be bipartisan on this issue? That doesn't seem to make
sense since there is already such support for the issue. Even anti-abortion
conservatives such as U.S. Senators Orrin Hatch and John McCain have already
expressed their desire to federally fund embryonic stem cell research.
One explanation I heard from a frontline stem cell activist that President
Obama did not issue a rescission order on Inauguration Day simply because he
did not want to throw sand in the eyes of the anti-abortion movement who
would be holding their annual March for Life rally in the Capital on January
22.
Or perhaps the president has been listening too much to Rev. Rick Warren's
tortured logic in opposition to this research? If so, it would be another
example of this president needlessly bowing down to the Religious Right.
This past December I wrote, "The good news is that beginning shortly after
noon on January 20, 2009 a presidential Executive Order will allow us to
follow that admonition, despite what Pastor Warren or the Vatican may
think." I earnestly believed that if Hillary Clinton would have issued an
Executive Order on January 20, 2009 freeing embryonic stem cell research, so
would a President Obama.
I was wrong.
Rayilyn Brown
Director AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation
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