Have I mentioned recently how happy I am that Barack Obama is President of the United States? Well, if not, how about this for a reason to celebrate?ABC News has learned that on Monday morning President Obama will hold an event at the White House in which he signs an executive order overturning the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
The announcement will be about "restoring scientific integrity to health care policy," an administration official tells ABC News.
Awesome! Who else besides me is happy today? Michael J. Fox and everyone else who cares about finding cures for Juvenile Diabetes, Parkinsons Disease, Alzheimers, cancer, paralysis, etc. And remember, for everyone out there who says that adult stem cells are sufficient: embryonic stem cells are crucial because of something called "pluripotency" - the ability to differentiate into all derivatives of the three primary germ layers (ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm). Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent. Adult stem cells are not, which means they only form a limited number of cell types, severely limiting their potential curative and therapeutic potential.
So why did George W. Bush restrict federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, despite the urgent need for it as well as the overwhelming popular support for it? Very simple: Bush was terrified of offending the far-right, Pat Robertson wing of the Republican Party. Fortunately, Barack Obama is NOT afraid of those people. Also fortunately, Barack Obama understands what the overwhelming majority of scientists and non-scientists in this country understands, that stem cell research is about curing terrible diseases at the minor "cost" of a 5-day old conglomeration of cells known as a "blastocyst" that would be thrown out anyway.
By the way, not all Republicans are from the Pat Robertson/Bob McDonnell wing. Here are a few quotes from pro-stem-cell-research Republicans that contradict the PatBob McRobertson party line. Thanks again to Barack Obama, and to everyone who worked so hard to elect him this past November!
* "There are so many, diseases that can be cured, or at least helped that we can't turn our backs on this.... We have lost so much time already. I just really can't bear to lose any more." -- Nancy Reagan, wife of President Ronald Reagan
* "I do believe, very strongly, that it is possible to be both antiabortion and pro-embryonic stem cell research. I believe that pro-life means caring for the living as well." - Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
* "I'm 100% pro-life. This is an issue of life to me. I don't want another 6-year-old to die" of juvenile diabetes." -- Randy Cunningham (R-CA), choking back tears as he spoke on the House floor.
* [The Republican Party] "has gone so far in adopting a sectarian agenda that it has become the political extension of a religious movement." It should not "punish people who believe it is their religious duty to use science to heal the sick." -- former Sen. John Danforth (R-MO)
* "I'm very much interested in stem cell research. I support it 100 percent, '' the governor said...I hope that [Proposition 71 to support stem cell research with $3 billion in state money] will win, so that eventually, 10 years from now, people will be saved from those terrible illnesses.'' -- Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA)
* "Dear Mr. President: We write to urge you to expand the current federal policy concerning embryonic stem cell research. Embryonic stem cells have the potential to be used to treat and better understand deadly and disabling diseases and conditions that affect more than 100 million Americans, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and many others." -- John Warner, Trent Lott, John McCain, Ted Stevens, and 54 other U.S. Senators
* "I think history will be extraordinarily unkind to a veto that will be based on ideology and not on sound ethics or sound science. This shows that their ideology has gotten them out of the mainstream of the American people."
"I think it's time we recognized the Dark Ages are over. Galileo and Copernicus have been proven right. The world is in fact round; the Earth does revolve around the sun. I believe God gave us intellect to differentiate between imprisoning dogma and sound ethical science, which is what we must do here today." -- Chris Shays (R-Conn.)
