Stem cell researchers relieved about new president
Stem cell researchers are hopeful about more flexibility
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Tuesday, 11, Nov 2008 01:59
Stem cell researchers are hopeful about more flexibility, thanks to Barack Obama's presidential victory.
Work in the field has been stifled by heavy restrictions since 1994, which ban federal funding for stem cell research. The Clinton administration inputted the original ban, though it was made more sever by president George Bush in 2001.
President-elect Obama has stated he will use "executive order" to "lift the current administration's ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines," according to a response sent to Science Debate 2008 from Mr Obama's campaign team.
Researchers from the International Society for Stem Cell Research now look forward to accelerated progress in their work that should come as a result of increased funding and greater flexibility.
"We are hopeful that removing restrictions on funding for stem cells will be one of the first acts of the Obama presidency," said George Daley, former president of the society, ABC reports.
"In the research community, we would all breathe a sigh of relief."
Private donations to the field have been allowed over the past decade, but they have been limited due to the social taboos on the matter.
Despite these taboos, it is thought stepping up stem cell research will be a welcome move from the majority of Americans as well as researchers.
"The next administration adopts the mainstream view of the majority of Americans: that stem cell research offers the best hope and potential for some of the desperately needed cures fro currently untreatable diseases," according to Professor James Douglas Engel, chair of the department of cell and developmental biology at the University of Michigan Medical School (ABC reports).
"Obviously, if federal fund become available for this research it will hasten our goal of developing cures for these diseases."
Still, while Mr Obama plans to remove the funding restrictions, he does plan to "ensure that all research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight."
Some researchers have also argued this new policy will not change very much, as lifting funding bans will only matter if there is a substantial budget set aside for stem cell research.