Clinton Vows To Rescind Bush's Restrictions On Federal Funding For Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 09 Oct 2007 - 5:00 PST

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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, on Thursday at the Carnegie Institution of Washington said she would rescind President Bush's restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research if elected president, the New York Times reports (Healy/Dean, New York Times, 10/5). Clinton also accused Bush of having "declared war on science" by inserting politics into decisions about health issues, including stem cell research and the availability of contraceptives without prescriptions (Pelofsky, Reuters, 10/4).

Federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research currently is allowed only for research using embryonic stem cell lines created on or before Aug. 9, 2001, under a policy announced by Bush on that date. Bush in June vetoed a bill (S 5) that would have allowed federal funding for research using stem cells derived from human embryos originally created for fertility treatments and willingly donated by patients. Bush also issued an executive order to NIH asking scientists to pursue research on stem cells that "are derived without creating a human embryo for research purposes or destroying, discarding or subjecting to harm a human embryo or fetus" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 6/21).

"The president's ban on stem cell funding amounts to a ban on hope," Clinton said, adding, "Some of our brightest minds are going to head overseas to do their research" because of the restrictions (Reuters, 10/4). "When I am president, I will end this assault on science," and the U.S. "will once again be the innovation nation," she said (Bellantoni, Washington Times, 10/5).

Republican National Committee spokesperson Danny Diaz said, "In her rush to attack the president, Hillary Clinton has conveniently forgotten that George W. Bush is the only president who has ever made federal money available for stem cell research" (Reuters, 10/4). He added that Clinton "says she will bring integrity to science, but on the campaign trail she manipulates basic mathematics in her attempts to explain how she will pay for hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending" (New York Times, 10/5).

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