CGS-authored
Yesterday President Obama signed an executive order that opened the door to billions of dollars in federal funding for human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). “It’s the big day everyone’s been waiting for, for about a decade, when science triumphs politics,” says Michael Werner, a partner in the Washington law firm of Holland & Knight and long-time advocate for hESC research.
“There’s certainly more to do from a scientific, political, and legal perspective, if you’re talking about turning this research into therapies for patients, but it’s a dramatic step forward and has been a long time coming.”
The executive order reverses a policy that has limited federal funding of hESC research to the handful of cell lines in existence as of August 9, 2001. The restriction reflected former President Bush’s belief that it was wrong to destroy human embryos to derive stem cells. His first use of veto power was to reject legislation that would have overturned the executive order. At the time he established his policy, Bush said funding research with the then-existing lines was justified since those embryos...
“There’s certainly more to do from a scientific, political, and legal perspective, if you’re talking about turning this research into therapies for patients, but it’s a dramatic step forward and has been a long time coming.”
The executive order reverses a policy that has limited federal funding of hESC research to the handful of cell lines in existence as of August 9, 2001. The restriction reflected former President Bush’s belief that it was wrong to destroy human embryos to derive stem cells. His first use of veto power was to reject legislation that would have overturned the executive order. At the time he established his policy, Bush said funding research with the then-existing lines was justified since those embryos...