Via Hot Air, it's being reported that President Obama is looking to lift a restriction on federal stem cell research funding. The headline, like most coverage of President Bush's actions in this area omits key information by claiming that Bush banned stem cell research.
President Bush didn't ban stem cell research. In fact, President Bush was the first to provide federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. He just set limits as to how much federal funding could go and limited the amount of lines that could be funded by the federal government to only those that were then in existence.
There were, and there continue to be, no such limitations on private research into embryonic stem cell research or any other stem cell research technique, including on adult stem cells or cord blood stem cells.
President Bush considered the ethical and moral issues relating to how the embryonic stem cells were gathered and put together a compromise, wherein only a set number of lines would be funded.
Obama looks to eliminate any such limitations and allow federal funds go to embryonic stem cell research despite the fact that other areas of stem cell research have proven to be much more successful and less susceptible to problems.
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