LAC News
President Obama’s “Change” Deadly for Embryos
By Sarah Feinberg
April 2009

The President’s executive order went further than many expected in opening up funding to destructive embryonic stem cell research (ESCR).  The bill that President Bush vetoed during the 110^th Congress and the one that Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) introduced during the 111^th Congress direct funding only towards embryos that were “created for the purposes of fertility treatment, were in excess of the clinical need … [and] would never be implanted in a woman and would otherwise be discarded.”[1]  President Obama’s executive order does not specify ethical parameters or any sort of limits on how far scientists may stray in the name of research.  The President’s order stated that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) may fund and conduct research on embryos “to the extent permitted by law.”  There are very few laws which rein in how far this research may go.

In the past, a piece of legislation known as the “Dickey-Wicker Amendment” was used to ban federal funds going toward the destruction or creation of human embryos for research.  The General Counsel to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued an interpretation in 1999 of Dickey-Wicker which undermined its protections.  In her opinion, the General Counsel determined that stem cells are not a human organism and, therefore, stem cells are not human embryos.[2]  This interpretation led President Bush to focus attention on the issue by banning federal funds to nearly all ESCR.  With the repeal of Bush’s executive order, the 1999 opinion will likely be reinstated.

Assuming that the 1999 opinion is ignored, the protection that Dickey-Wicker affords is still minimal.  It bans federal funds only to the actual destruction or creation of an embryo.  Once the embryo is destroyed or cloned (with private funds) federal funds can go to the research from those stem cell lines.  This new source of funding for stem cell research also provides an incentive for more aggressive human cloning.

Most countries have banned human cloning, but the U.S. has not.  Although President Obama stated that the “Government [will] never open the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction,” he did leave the door open to therapeutic cloning.[3]  Therapeutic cloning is no different than reproductive cloning except with regard to intent.  The exact same process is followed, but in therapeutic cloning, the cloned embryo is not implanted in a woman’s uterus.  Any type of cloning opens up a host of ethical questions: What is owed to a cloned embryo as opposed to one that is naturally created?  At what point should the law protect a cloned embryo from destruction?  What if the cloned embryo was implanted in a woman?  Does the government then have a right, or responsibility, to force an abortion of the clone?  It is critical that human life is protected at this earliest stage from destruction rather than exploited from its artificial creation through engineered death.

President Bush took an extremely reasonable approach on the issue of ESCR.  He believed, along with the majority of the country, that it was unethical and a dangerous precedent.  Rather than banning funding to any sort of ESCR, he stopped the continuation of the destruction of embryos.  He ended the funding of destructive research, but allowed for research conducted on stem cell lines which were created prior to his statement on August 9, 2001.[4]  Instead of letting previously destroyed embryos go to waste, he allowed for the NIH to continue the work it already started.  His executive order in 2007 encouraged the development of alternative sources of pluripotent stem cells and adult stem cells, which have, up to this point, shown the most promise and actually cured people.[5]

While President Bush took a nuanced and science-based approach, Obama has taken an approach that places politics above science.  He has thrown the doors wide open to public funding with no restraints.[6]  He could have taken a less political approach by emphasizing the importance of continuing adult stem cell research and non-destructive pluripotent stem cell research.  Instead, he entirely revoked President Bush’s executive order in the name of “science.”  His assertion that he is placing science above politics is at best disingenuous, at worst, a blatant falsehood.

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