Congress gears up to challenge court victory on stem cells
- Sep 1, 2010 - comment -
A federal court gave the pro-life community much to cheer about last week with its decision to temporarily halt taxpayer-funded research on human embryos as permitted by a 2009 presidential executive order. That might seem to put to rest the ethical concerns of tax dollars being put to work on embryos destroyed for experimentation. But the cheering could be short-lived if Congress has any say in the matter.
In reaction to the injunction issued Aug. 23 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, some in Congress are indicating they plan to introduce legislation to circumvent the ruling.
The principal barrier and the hinge on which the court’s ruling swings is a 1996 law that prevents direct taxpayer funding of either the creation of human embryos for research or the actual extraction of stem cells from embryos resulting in their destruction or harm. This Dickey-Wicker Amendment, as it is known for its original sponsors, has been attached annually to an appropriations bill.
At issue is whether the federal government has the legal authority to fund research on stem cells that have already been extracted from human embryos. Chief Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the National Institutes of Health’s Guidelines on Stem Cell Research, the outgrowth of President Obama’s March 9, 2009, order, violate the statute because “if one step or ‘piece of research’ of an [embryonic stem cell] research project results in the destruction of an embryo, the entire project is precluded from receiving federal funding by the Dickey-Wicker Amendment.”
Not to be outdone by a court, congressional proponents of the unethical research have a solution: rewrite—meaning weaken—the Dickey-Wicker Amendment to give the government some wiggle room.
There are also renewed efforts to buttress this proposed so-called legislative fix with another. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), a standard bearer on Capitol Hill for government-sponsored embryo-destructive research, has described a “new urgency” to push forward on her signature bill, the Stem Cell Research Advancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 4808), which essentially would graft President Obama’s order into law. The president’s directive overturned his predecessor’s 2001 policy and gives the federal government the green light to support research that requires the killing of human embryos.
During his terms of office, President George W. Bush acted as the firewall against this trail of destruction, twice vetoing similar legislation. But with both a White House and a majority in Congress cheerleading for the bill this time around, its chances for approval have improved.
While the present political will to move forward might be sufficient, the public will is, not surprisingly, lacking. A Rasmussen poll released August 27 found that just 33 percent of likely voters “believe that taxpayer money should be spent on embryonic stem cell research,” while a majority, 57 percent, oppose taxpayer funded embryo-destructive research. Congress should take heed.
Why not instead direct more money to life-respecting research using adult stem cells that is currently treating more than 70 diseases and ailments? Why not also promote an alternative research technique—induced pluripotent stem cell research—in which adult skin cells are “walked” back to an embryonic-like state, a recent breakthrough that many scientists believe could make destructive research unnecessary? And most importantly, why not uphold all human lives as having equal worth rather than elevating one life above another, sacrificing the innocent young in hopes of bettering the bigger and more developed? These questions demand seemingly obvious answers.
As the liberal congressional leadership considers what to add to its remaining list of issues this year, funding embryo-destructive research with taxpayer dollars should not be among them. If you agree, you may want to pay a visit to your representative and senators while they are in your district and state the next two weeks and tell them to uphold the existing Dickey-Wicker Amendment and to oppose the DeGette bill (H.R. 4808) or any efforts to codify federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Life, Stem-Cell Research