Obama Can 'Minimize' Opposition To Stem Cell Research By Encouraging Embryo Donation, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 13 Nov 2008 - 9:00 PST

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The issue of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research could "energize conservative opponents" and "derail" President-elect Barack Obama's presidency if "[h]andled wrongly," Ronald Green -- chair of the Ethics Advisory Board of Advanced Cell Technology and a member of NIH's 1994 Human Embryo Research Panel -- writes in a Washington Post opinion piece. "There is no question that we must move ahead" on embryonic stem cell research, "but caution is key," he writes. According to Green, Obama should "minimize opposition by following the lead President Bush established in 2001" when he said that "'the life and death decision' had already been made" on the embryos used to create stem cell lines before Bush banned federal funding for research on new lines. Green writes that Bush's justification for his policy also is "true of thousands of frozen embryos stored in fertility clinics around the country," of which many will not be used and are "destined to be destroyed."

Obama should issue an executive order allowing couples to donate surplus fertility treatment embryos for use in research and the creation of new stem cell lines, rather than destroying the embryos, Green writes. "The moral parallel here is organ donation after death," Green writes, adding, "In this case, the embryo's death is an unavoidable result of its creation and subsequent non-use for reproductive purposes. The production of stem cells from these embryos could be easily accomplished without federal support, and the resulting stem cells could be donated for federal research."

Although this approach will not end the controversy surrounding human embryonic stem cell research, Obama could "succeed in reducing the most vehement opposition to a manageable level ... by observing that his policy represent[s] only an extension of the one established by his predecessor, and by stressing the beneficial use of embryos that would otherwise be destroyed," Green concludes (Green, Washington Post, 11/12).

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