Stem Cell Research: Adults Only?

IBD Editorials ^ | August 24, 2010 | Investors Business Daily staff

[Kaslin]

Bioethics: A federal judge rules that the administration violated congressional intent when it lifted restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. No, this will not usher in a new dark age.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth was striking enough. Lamberth said that when President Obama lifted Bush administration restrictions on ESCR, he violated the Dickey-Wicker Amendment. First passed in 1996, and passed every year as part of the federal budget, Dickey-Wicker blocks federal funds for stem cell research in which human embryos are destroyed.

Perhaps more striking is the press coverage of Lamberth's ruling. The Associated Press reported that it "blocked rules expanding stem cell research," a move "that could stall potentially lifesaving research." But all Lamberth did was enforce the law. Lifesaving research using stem cells is still free to proceed.

In lifting the Bush executive order, the Obama administration thought it had found a clever way around Dickey-Wicker. Under new National Institutes of Health guidelines, if private money were used to destroy the embryos, federal money could still be used to fund later research on the derived cell lines, as long as those donating the embryos were told of other options, including donating the embryo to an infertile couple.

Judge Lamberth said, uh, no. The circumstances of the embryo's destruction did not matter. The federal prohibition was clear and absolute: Federal funds could not be used for embryonic stem cell research, period. The new guidelines were a clear violation of federal intent.

The problem for opponents of the new guidelines was finding someone with standing in the courts. The embryos themselves could not sue, nor could anyone else sue on their behalf since the clients weren't accepted as human beings.

[sarasmom]

Yes!!!

There has never been opposition to “stem cell research”.

There has always been, and will always be, furious opposition to “embryonic stem cell research”, from people who care about the future of humanity.

As a woman, and the mother of a daughter, I am adamantly against government involvement in the reproductive activities of women.
Women have not held “fully legal equal human status” long enough in western civilizations to protect their own bodies from exploration, much less the potential life of their unborn children.

[Blood of Tyrants]

In lifting the Bush executive order, the Obama administration thought it had found a clever way around Dickey-Wicker.

To Obastard, laws and the Constitution are just impediments to find clever ways around in order to his way.