Obama signs order lifting stem-cell ban
Posted: Monday, March 09, 2009 2:02 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC’s Athena Jones
WASHINGTON -- Before an East Room audience of doctors, scientists, lawmakers and religious leaders President
Obama signed an executive order Monday lifting the ban on federal funding for stem cell research, fulfilling a promise he made on the campaign trail.
The order overturns the
Bush policy that said no government money could be used for research on stem cell lines created after Aug. 9, 2001.
"Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident," Obama said. "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."
Video: Obama lifts the ban on federal funding for stem cell research.
While the economy has dominated the headlines, and much of the president's attention, the stem cell issue is one the president had long said he would address early in his presidency.
Also on hand for the event were members of congress like House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, Sen.
Orrin Hatch and Rhode Island Rep.
James Langevin, who is the first quadriplegic to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and one of whose top priorities has been advancing the science of stem cell research.
"When government fails to make these investments, opportunities are missed. Promising avenues go unexplored,” the president said. “Some of our best scientists leave for other countries that will sponsor their work and those countries may surge ahead of ours in the advances that transform our lives. In recent years, when it comes to stem-cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values."
Arguing that the two sets of values were not inconsistent, Obama spoke about his own faith.
"As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering," he said. "I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research -- and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly."
The executive order Obama signed called on the secretary of health and human services, through the director of the National Institutes of Health, to develop new guidelines to govern this research within 120 days.
"I can also promise that we will never undertake this research lightly," the president said. "We will support it only when it is both scientifically worthy and responsibly conducted."
He added that the U.S. would develop "strict guidelines," which will be "rigorously" enforced.
The president also signed a memorandum that directs the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision-making. Obama spoke frequently on the campaign trail of the need to make sure public policy was based on sound science.
"It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda,” Obama said, “and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology."
