Pushing for Federal Funding of Human Cloning

“The scientists” used to tell us that all they want is leftover embryos for ESCR. That was never all they wanted, but the lie was a useful political tool to try and destroy the Bush federal funding policy. Once President Obama put that policy in the grave, I predicted the push would soon begin to fund human cloning research.

Bingo. First we saw it pushed in the anything goes New York Times and the science journal Nature. And now, it is about to be brought forth as federal legislation. From the story in the Congressional Quarterly:

As the Obama administration prepares to greatly expand the government’s investments in embryonic stem cell research, the next big biomedical research debate in Congress is shaping up: whether to allow government funding of experiments using cloned human embryos.

Two House members who were the chief backers of legislation to expand embryonic stem cell research are working on a new bill that would codify President Obama’s recent executive order allowing greater federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Their legislation will also contain language allowing the National Institutes of Health to invest in other kinds of research into human cell biology, perhaps including what is known as “therapeutic cloning.”

Obama didn’t “allow greater funding,” as there was never a cap. It allowed more cell lines to qualify for federal funding, which is not the same thing. But never mind. I get sick of having to correct reporting in this field.

I hate saying, “I told you so,” in these matters because most of the time it is just plain bad news.