We all know that President Obama rescinded the Bush funding restrictions for ESCR.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 He also rescinded Executive Order 13435 of June 20, 2007.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!
Lift My Chin, Lord
Lift my chin, Lord,Say to me,“You are not whoYou feared to be,Not Hecate, quite,With howling sound,Torch held…
Letters
Two delightful essays in the March issue, by Nikolas Prassas (“Large Language Poetry,” March 2025) and Gary…
Spring Twilight After Penance
Let’s say you’ve just comeFrom confession. Late sunPours through the budding treesThat mark the brown creek washing Itself…