The Stem Cell Ban
Posted by Moonage on 13 Aug 2004 | Tagged as: 2004 Presidential Election, Government
Much has been made lately of “the stem cell ban”. I think this topic needs to be explored a little closer.
August 9, 2001, President Bush gave a speech on stem cell research. In this speech, he summed it up with “I also believe that great scientific progress can be made through aggressive federal funding of research on umbilical cord placenta, adult and animal stem cells which do not involve the same moral dilemma. This year, your government will spend $250 million on this important research. ” This has been misinterpreted as a Presidential Proclomation. It wasn’t. What it did was leave in place a proclomation President Reagan made many years before banning embryonic research. What Bush did do was apply funding that never existed before. What he also did was limit that funding to specific stem cell lines that are already developed.
John Kerry is now touting, due to the boost given him by Ronnie Reagan, most lately by stating “Three years ago, the president enacted a far-reaching ban on stem-cell research”. This is a very misleading statement pandering to those that don’t have any idea what is going on. It sounds good, but it’s deceptive as hell.
1. There was no federal funding at all for stem cell research before Bush’s announcement of 8/9/01. None. The “far-reaching ban” was actually much more far-reaching before Bush.
2. There is no ban at all on stem cell research. What Bush did was provide funding for specific lines, he just didn’t include all of the potential lines that could be developed. That’s certainly not what the definition of ban indicates. No one is banned from researching any line of stem cells. They may not be able to get paid for doing it by the federal government, but, since the Howard Hughes Foundation is funding ANY stem cell research, that means no one is banned from researching any stem cells they want.
3. The limitations of the Bush stem cell position are being expanded even now. How can a “ban” be expanded?
4. In combination with private sources, which are developing new strains that the federal government will not pay for, there exists the ability to expand the lines the government will pay for. Notably, “The President’s policy places no obstacles in the path of private or state funding for stem cell research - researchers are receiving support from both sources, in addition to support from the Federal Government. ” What this means that, if additional lines are developed outside of federal funding, there is nothing preventing either NIH, private funding, or state funding from using them. That is the full intent of Geron and Howard Hughes Foundation. Both of these entities are pursuing the cure for Alzheimer’s ( as well as other diseases), which was the main gripe Ronnie Reagan used to justify speaking to the Democratic National Convention, and which put the “stem cell ban” on the frontburner for Kerry.
And, to make the issue even more damning for Kerry, my good friend Hedonistix found this article from The Opinion Journal:
Far from banning research, Bush is expanding federal funding. You might not know about it from listening to the news lately, [but] the President also looks forward to medical breakthroughs that may arise from stem cell research. Few people know that George W. Bush is the only President to ever authorize federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
–Laura Bush
It’s obvious neither Ronnie Reagan or Kerry bothered to research the issue to any degree at all. Don’t just listen to the rhetoric. And the next time you hear Kerry preach on the “stem cell ban”, remember his protests against President Nixon before Nixon was even president.
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