Obama's stem cell policy is welcome change, but ethics are permanent feature of debate
By Jesse Reynolds,
The Jurist online
| 03. 18. 2009
President Obama's recent removal of his predecessor's stem cell policy is a welcome development. The Bush administration's restriction on the federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research was outdated and increasingly unpopular. While much of the media coverage of President Obama's announcement has focused on the research's potential and the political winners and losers, here are a few points that were overlooked:
For years, embryonic stem cell research in the US has been conducted in a federal regulatory vacuum, and the debate has been characterized by exaggerated rhetoric about imminent cures. Obama shifted the ground on both fronts. He ordered the National Institutes of Health(NIH) to draw up guidelines, which hopefully will be enforceable and apply to both publicly and privately funded research. The President also clearly called for a prohibition on reproductive cloning, which remains legal in the US and shares materials and methods with embryonic stem cell research. Furthermore, his language was optimistic but cautious; he noted that cures may not come in our lifetimes. This is a big change from advocates' over-the-top promises...
Related Articles
By Eric Schmidt, TIME | 04.16.2024
Imagine a world where everything from plastics to concrete is produced from biomass. Personalized cell and gene therapies prevent pandemics and treat previously incurable genetic diseases. Meat is lab-grown; enhanced nutrient grains are climate-resistant. This is what the future could...
By Harold Brubaker, The Philadelphia Inquirer | 04.04.2024
Acompany started by University of Pennsylvania scientist Jim Wilson has received FDA approval to test a form of gene editing in infants for the first time in the United States, the company said Thursday.
The Plymouth Meeting company, iECURE, is...
By Carey Gillan, UnSpun | 03.18.2024
A Mexican standoff with the United States turned into a Mexican smack-down this month with the release of Mexico’s formal rebuttal to US efforts to overturn limits Mexico has ordered on the use of genetically modified (GM) corn and the...
By Billy Perrigo, TIME | 03.11.2024
The U.S. government must move “quickly and decisively” to avert substantial national security risks stemming from artificial intelligence (AI) which could, in the worst case, cause an “extinction-level threat to the human species,” says a report commissioned by the U.S...