Obama authorises embryonic stem cell research

In a clear rebuke to his White House predecessor, President Barack Obama declared he will not allow politics to taint science and signed an executive order to allow funding of broader research into stem cells.

In particularly pointed remarks, Mr Obama also said he would end “manipulation or coercion” of the scientific community when its findings are “inconvenient”.

Scientists hope to use embryonic stem cells to regenerate diseased cells in those suffering a variety of fatal or debilitating diseases.

Former President George Bush had limited the use of taxpayer money allowed for the research, saying it required the destruction of embryos and is therefore morally wrong.

Reversing course in a White House ceremony, Mr Obama coupled the stem cell directive with a presidential memorandum to promote what he called “the restoration of scientific integrity to government decision-making”.

Mr Bush ran foul of the scientific community by often dismissing its findings on issues like global warming and stem cell research because they contradicted his conservative political and moral positions.

Mr Obama said that practice was over.

“Promoting science isn’t just about providing resources – it’s also about protecting free and open inquiry,” he said.

“It’s about letting scientists like those who are here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it’s inconvenient – especially when it’s inconvenient.

“It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda – and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.”

The president said his decision to allow federal funding of far broader stem cell research would open the road for promising, but still long-range research.

“Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident,” he said before signing the order.

“They result from painstaking and costly research from years of lonely trial and error, much of which never bears fruit and from a government willing to support that work.”

Researchers said the new president’s message was clear: science, which once propelled men to the moon, again matters in American life.

Opponents saw it differently: a defeat for morality in the most basic questions of life and death.

On another issue relating to the Bush administration, Mr Obama ordered a review of his predecessor’s use of presidential signing statements, which often told government officials how to implement laws passed by Congress.

The stem cell order, meanwhile, could set in motion a significant push on research to find better treatment for ailments from diabetes to paralysis.

Proponents such as former first lady Nancy Reagan and the late actor Christopher Reeve had called for ending restrictions on research spending.

Mr Obama called on Congress to provide the needed funding even as he asserted the order would never allow human cloning.

“We will ensure that our government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction,” he said. “It is dangerous, profoundly wrong, and has no place in our society, or any society.”

Mr Bush had limited the use of taxpayer money to research using 21 stem cell lines that were created before August 9, 2001, the day he announced his decision.

While the Obama order reverses that, it does not address an earlier legislative ban that remains in place precluding any federal money to researchers who develop stem cell lines by destroying embryos.

That legislation, however, does not prevent federal funds going to research on stem cell lines that were produced by researchers who did their work without federal aid.

Mr Obama’s order, thus, would allow federal funding of research on the hundreds of new lines created – through private funding – since the Bush imposed ban.

Mr Bush and his supporters had said they were defending human life. Days-old embryos – typically from fertility clinics – are destroyed for the stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells are master cells that can morph into any cell of the body.

Scientists hope to harness them so they can create replacement tissues to treat a variety of diseases – such as new insulin-producing cells for diabetics, cells that could help those with Parkinson’s disease or maybe even Alzheimer’s, or new nerve connections to restore movement after spinal injury.