Today's New York Times article about the Obama decision to fund Embryonic Stem Cell Research raised the issue of legislative restrictions currently on the books. In order for the President to get his wish of compleltely opening the floodgates of taxpayer funding for embryonic stem cell research that destroys human life, he needs Congress to lift the "Dickey-Wicker" amendment, named for its legislative sponsors:
The ban, known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, first became law in 1996, and has been renewed by Congress every year since. It specifically bans the use of tax dollars to create human embryos — a practice that is routine in private fertility clinics — or for research in which embryos are destroyed, discarded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury.
For a time, the ban stood in the way of taxpayer-financed embryonic stem cell research, because embryos are destroyed when stem cells are extracted from them. But in August 2001, in a careful compromise, President Bush opened the door a tiny crack, by ordering that tax dollars could be used for studies on a small number of lines, or colonies, of stem cells already extracted from embryos — so long as federal researchers did not do the extraction themselves.
On Monday, Mr. Obama will throw open the door much farther with an executive order that will “make clear that the government intends to support” human embryonic stem cell research, said Harold Varmus, the president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who advises Mr. Obama on science matters.
Congresswoman Diana Degette (D-Co), a long-time champion of embryonic stem cell research had this to say about the regulation that currently prevents your tax dollars from subsidizing the destruction of human life:Elections have consequences, folks.
