We all know that President Obama rescinded the Bush funding restrictions for ESCR. But that isn’t all he did. He also rescinded Executive Order 13435 of June 20, 2007.
What is that? Of course, the Administration didn’t have the candor or courage to publicize this part of his nasty work, but the now dead order explicitly required funding for “alternative methods,” such as the new IPSCs, which offer so much promise without the ethical contentiousness. For more on that late executive order, see SHS, “Bush to Fund Stem Cell ‘Alternatives’ Research.) Alternative methods are one of the few areas in which we can all row in the same direction, which I thought this president wanted to do.
I can think of only two reasons for this action, for which I saw no advocacy either in the election or during the first weeks of the Administration: First, vindictiveness against all things “Bush” or policies considered by the Left to be “pro life;” and second, a desire to get the public to see unborn human life as a mere corn crop ripe for the harvest.
So much for taking the politics out of science!
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