Embryonic stem cell research: unintended reversal?

Saturday, March 14, 2009 Comments

It looks like Obama has managed to reverse himself again, only this time in a good way if you're opposed to federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

You may recall that on Monday, Obama signed an order to lift the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Although he made it sound like embryonic stem cell research itself had previously been banned, it hadn't. It simply required private funding since federal funding was restricted. He also neglected to mention that in the years since the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research was put into place, promising advances have been made in the area of adult stem cell research, which does not require the destruction of human embryos.

Two days later, he signed the $410 billion omnibus porkfest, complete with 8,000 earmarks. Yes, after he campaigned on "no earmarks". But don't worry, he's going to make sure they do something about earmarks next year.

Apparently, he didn't bother to read it (anyone surprised?), because the omnibus budget bill included a provision that bans federal funding of any "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death." Which basically undoes what he did on Monday, does it not?