By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Implementing Obama’s decision to overturn the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released new proposed guidelines that will now allow funding of experimentation on embryos from IVF clinics that are “no longer needed for that purpose.”
As expected, the new guidelines go far beyond Pres. Bush’s order that only allowed taxpayer funding for research on stem cell lines derived before his policy was put in place.
Instead, the new Guidelines specifically “allow funding for research using human embryonic stem cells that were derived from embryos created by in vitro fertilization (IVF) for reproductive purposes and were no longer needed for that purpose.”
The Obama administration is not allowing creation of human embryos for the specific purpose of destroying them for research, which is prohibited under a current federal law known as the Dickey amendment. However, the president is expected to sign a bill sponsored by Rep. Diana DeGette that would overturn this amendment and allow what is known as “fetal farming” – the use of human cloning to create embryos that are to be used specifically for research.
According to a report by LifeNews.com, NIH director Raynard Kington talked with media outlets in a conference call and claimed that embryonic stem cell research would be a boost to overall scientific progress even though, unlike adult stem cells, it has never helped a single patient.
“This is a remarkable development that promises to speed the research that one day may fundamentally change the way we do (medical) research,” he said. “There can be no question that these guidelines will greatly expand scientific opportunity.”
However, not everyone is willing to ignore the serious ethical issues surrounding this kind of destructive research. Douglas Johnson, Legislative Director of the National Right to Life Committee, says the new guidelines show that the Obama Administration is sliding “further down the slippery slope of exploiting non-consenting members of the human species – human embryos.”
While some may characterize the guidelines as narrowly crafted because the NIH will not initially fund research involving human embryos who were created specifically to be used in research, “This seeming restraint is part of an incremental strategy intended to desensitize the public to the concept of killing human embryos for research purposes,” Johnson said.
“We believe that today’s action may be part of a ‘bait-and-switch’ strategy, under which Democratic leaders in Congress will suddenly bring up new legislation (DeGette’s bill) that they will claim codifies today’s NIH action, but which will in fact authorize further expansions involving the deliberate creation of human embryos for use in research, by human cloning and other methods. “
The public will have one month to comment on the new guidelines and the Obama administration is expected to release the final set of rules in July.
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