Bioethics Defense Fund Condemns Obama's 'Obsolete Science Bailout Plan'

The effect of President Obama's Executive Order is to direct scarce federal tax dollars to research that is immoral, ineffective and, given recent scientific advances, unnecessary.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ (Bioethics Defense Fund) - As part of its educational mission, Bioethics Defense Fund (BDF) issued the following statement in response to President Obama's executive order regarding federal tax-payer funding of new human embryonic stem cell lines:

"The effect of President Obama's Executive Order is to direct scarce federal tax dollars to research that is immoral, ineffective and, given recent scientific advances, unnecessary," said BDF President and General Counsel Nikolas T. Nikas.

In highlighting the missed opportunity that President Obama had to unite our nation around recent breakthrough research methods, Nikas pointed to a March 4, 2009 article by former NIH head Dr. Bernadine Healy entitled "Why Embryonic Stem Cells are Obsolete."

Bioethics Defense Fund has compiled an educational resource that highlights the facts that President Obama should have relied on to bring the nation together behind the breakthrough alternative method of induced pluripotent stem cell research which provides cells virtually identical to embryonic stem cells, but without the need for embryos, cloning or egg harvesting.

BDF Senior Counsel Dorinda Bordlee condemned the order as an irresponsible and immoral "Obsolete Science Bailout Plan." Bordlee pointed out that scientists won't be required to help one patient or develop one treatment in order to keep our federal tax-dollars coming in to fund research on destroyed human embryos.

She also expressed concern that the new federal funding will increase the exploitive market of egg harvesting to create embryos, which typically involves injecting cash-strapped college women with high doses of hormones that endangers their lives and their ovarian health.

The executive order will increase funding for the study of privately created embryonic stem cell lines, but not the direct destruction of human embryos. Efforts in Congress are now underway to repeal the Dickey-Wicker amendment, which currently prohibits the use of federal tax dollars for the actual creation and destruction of human embryos.

If Dickey-Wicker is repealed, federal tax dollars could be used to fund human embryo cloning and the creation of IVF human embryos for the sole purpose of their destruction.

---

The Mission of the Bioethics Defense Fund is to provide innovative and practical legal and educational solutions on the issues of Cloning & Stem Cell Research, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide and Abortion & Women's Health.