A False Choice, A False Debate: Stem Cell Research

On Monday, Barack Obama overturned George Bush's executive order restricting funding for stem cell research. A very conservative minority complained about Obama's recent action. They claim it is immoral to destroy human embryos for scientific research, but they are presenting a false choice. Currently thousands of unused and unwanted human embryos are destroyed each year. The choice is between just throwing out embryos or using embryos (that were going to be destroyed anyway) for possibly life-saving research.

Currently, when couples go to fertility clinics for in vitro fertilization, the clinic will often make more embryos than needed. It is impossible to know if an embryo will successfully be implanted or how many children an individual will want. As a result, thousands of extra human embryos are created each year.

A few hundred “snowflake” embryos have been adopted. The demand for adopting “snowflake” embryos is small, and many parents don't like the idea of someone else giving birth to their children. As a result, we currently destroy thousands of embryos a year. Human embryos will not and have not been created for stem cell research. Research has and will only be done on a small fraction of embryos which would have been destroyed anyway. If conservatives want to stop the destruction of human embryos, they need stop the fertility industry.

Millions Suffering, Obama Fails to Act

President Obama made many promises during his presidential campaign, but to me there were none more important than his promise to relieve the physical suffering of Americans. On this front, his two biggest promises were to create a universal health care system and to overturn George Bush's misguided executive order restricting stem cell research.

I'm disappointed that Obama has yet to begin addressing our nation's health care crisis. The delay in naming a new HHS Secretary and/or health care czar could set back much needed reforms by months or even years. But I understand that necessary reform will be a serious and time consuming political fight.

What is unconscionable is Obama's failure to fulfill his promise on stem cell research. The Obama campaign promised to immediately overturn Bush's order restricting research. Unlike with legislation, there is nothing preventing Obama from taking action on an executive order. The stem cell research ban could literally be overturned in a matter of hours.

Stem cell research holds the possibility of finding a treatment for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, and a host of physical disabilities. It may eventually improve the lives of millions of Americans who suffer from debilitating illnesses. Some may say that it has "only" been a month and we should be patient. But if it is you, your parents, or your children suffering, a month can be a very long time.