Obama executive order to lift limits on federally-funded stem-cell research

March 09, 2009

President Barack Obama today signed an executive order lifting limits on the federal funding of stem-cell research, which involves the destruction of human embryos. In doing so, President Obama reversed President George Bush’s 2001 executive order on stem-cell research, which banned federal funding of the practice apart from research conducted on existing stem-cell lines-- even as private funding remained legal.

"We will vigorously support scientists who pursue this research," President Obama said as he signed the executive order. He conceded: "At this moment, the full promise of stem cell research remains unknown, and it should not be overstated." Nevertheless he called for aggressive research efforts and promised federal support for scientists using embryonic stem cells. He promised to "ensure that our government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction," saying that federal subsidies would be restricted to research efforts in which the human embryos are destroyed before they can develop.

Both President Obama and his principal opponent in the 2008 presidential election, Sen. John McCain, had pledged to overturn President Bush’s executive order. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reiterated the Church's position that research using human embryos is "deeply immoral."

 

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Further information:

• Obama sees link between stem-cell work, 'scientific integrity' (USA Today)
• Obama Aims to Shield Science From Politics (Washington Post)
• Vatican daily slams embryonic stem cell research (AP)
• Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Instruction Dignitas Personae on Certain Bioethical Questions (2008)
• Stem Cell Research (USCCB)