Obama Signs Law Banning Federal Embryo Research Two Days After Signing Executive Order to OK It

Obama Signs Law Banning Federal Embryo Research Two Days After Signing Executive Order to OK It

www.cnsnews.com...

On Wednesday, only two days after he lifted President Bush’s executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research that requires the destruction of human embryos, President Barack Obama signed a law that explicilty bans federal funding of any "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."

The provision was buried in the 465-page omnibus appropriations bill that Obama signed Wednesday. Known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, it has been included in the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services every fiscal year since 1996.

The amendment says, in part: "None of the funds made available in this Act may be used for—(1) the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes; or (2) research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."

Found in Section 509 of Title V of the omnibus bill (at page 280 of the 465-page document), the federal funding ban not only prohibits the government from providing tax dollars to support research that kills or risks injury to a human embryo, it also mandates that the government use an all-inclusive definition of “human embryo” that encompasses any nascent human life from the moment that life comes into being, even if created in a laboratory through cloning, in vitro fertilization or any other means.

“For the purposes of this section,” says the law, “the term ‘human embryo or embryos’ includes any organism … that is derived by fertilization, parthenogenesis, cloning, or any other means from one or more human gametes or human diploid cells.” (The entire verbatim text of Section 509 of the omnibus spending law is reprinted at the bottom of this article.)

At a widely publicized White House ceremony on Monday, President Obama signed his own executive order lifting an executive order that President Bush had signed in 2001. While allowing federal funding of research involving embryonic stem cell lines that had already been created from embryos that had already been destroyed, Bush's 2001 order denied federal funding to research that required the killing of any additional embryos.

HUH?

That's incredibly strange....Kind of makes me question whether or not he even knew it was buried within the document he was signing???

Or perhaps he had a million little Obama clones made for his own personal army, and then signed off on this law.

Originally posted by mpriebe81
That's incredibly strange....Kind of makes me question whether or not he even knew it was buried within the document he was signing???

Or perhaps he had a million little Obama clones made for his own personal army, and then signed off on this law.

That's incredibly strange....Kind of makes me question whether or not he even knew it was buried within the document he was signing???

I doubt he read it, he didn't read the stimulus plan, it is all political posturing.

I am wondering if this is just prohibiting the making of embryos for just research.

reply to post by nixie_nox


It says here,

Close observers on both sides of the embryonic stem cell issue were well aware of the Dickey-Wicker amendment, and understood that it would pose a legal obstacle to federal funding of embryo-killing research even if President Obama issued an executive order reversing President Bush's administrative policy denying federal funding to that research.

www.cnsnews.com...
The Politics of Stem Cells
www.pbs.org...

Nothing really strange here. It merely outlaws embryo farming for research purposes and provides some provisions for protecting embryos. When he reversed Bush's ban he allowed funding fof embryonic research that uses embryos that have been created and would otherwise be destroyed (fertility procedure 'surplus' and other medical procedures).

reply to post by jtma508



Do you think the average persons undertands these things?

How utterly complicated!
I guess i'll stick to the ET threads, as I am slightly hungover
and not fully functioning at the moment.

Originally posted by Stormdancer777
reply to post by jtma508

 

Do you think the average persons undertands these things?

So you're asking if the average person may jump to conclusions and pounce on the idea that Obama may have contradicted himself, and appear to be confused when clearly he was actually trying to reign in any abuse of the researches use embryos?

Yeah, I guess that could happen.

- Lee

In the Air Force we call this "all thrust and no vector". Is it just me or do others see Obama going in every direction to whatever the winds of approval might take him? As we all know approval is slippery slope that changes direction daily.

We don’t need a President that blows around like a leaf, we need one that sets a course and sticks to it. Even if you do not agree with the course at least you can see what direction he is going. Right now none of us know what he will do tomorrow.

A President doesn’t experiment on the people, and say oops that didn’t work let’s try something else. He has lived with the Doom and Gloom of the economy and now he saying it’s not as bad as we might think, and he really hasn’t done anything yet to chance it one way or the other.




[edit on 14-3-2009 by Xtrozero]

reply to post by lee anoma


If it were so clear, it wouldn't have taken 3 posts to explain what the eff this all actually means!

Then again, I have never really followed any of the stem cell research laws so i'm a bit out of my element

Originally posted by lee anoma

Originally posted by Stormdancer777
reply to post by jtma508

 

Do you think the average persons undertands these things?

So you're asking if the average person may jump to conclusions and pounce on the idea that Obama may have contradicted himself, and appear to be confused when clearly he was actually trying to reign in any abuse of the researches use embryos?

Yeah, I guess that could happen.

- Lee

Yup, I get confused, untill I start digging for answers.

Where would I be without the internet, probably doing laundry.

Originally posted by Xtrozero
In the Air Force we call this "all thrust and no vector". Is it just me or do others see Obama going in every direction to whatever the winds of approval might take him? As we all know approval is slippery slope that changes direction daily.

I think people are doing what I call "jumping the gun" a bit here with accusations and assumptions.

I personally wouldn't rush to try and paint Obama with the John Kerry brush. Especially when you don't really understand what this federal ban means. It by no means contradicts his lifting of funding for research and he is NOT blowing in the wind but actually creating necessary safeguards.

People don't get it so perhaps a source from the SAME site with a "clearer" definition and a less misleading title would be of service.

White House: No Federal Funds for Creating or Destroying Embryos
Friday, March 13, 2009
By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer

(CNSNews.com) – A White House official told CNSNews.com that in keeping with language included in the spending bill that President Obama signed into law Wednesday, federal funding cannot go to research that creates or destroys human embryos, but it can go to research that uses stem cells taken from embryos that are destroyed without federal funds. CSN news

Not exactly what people are trying to make it out to be is it?
Actually I assume they should be pleased to some extent.

- Lee

Thank you, that most certainly clears it up a bit!
I still think that it's a little convoluted and just STRANGE though.
So you can destroy an embryo, but not with federal funding. Yeah, that's frickin' weird. I guess he's trying to keep everybody happy with this one, tiptoe-ing through the tulips if you will.

Originally posted by mpriebe81
Thank you, that most certainly clears it up a bit!

I still think that it's a little convoluted and just STRANGE though.
So you can destroy an embryo, but not with federal funding. Yeah, that's frickin' weird. I guess he's trying to keep everybody happy with this one, tiptoe-ing through the tulips if you will.

So you can destroy an embryo, but not with federal funding. Yeah, that's frickin' weird.

LOLOLOL good one

Originally posted by mpriebe81
reply to post by lee anoma

 

If it were so clear, it wouldn't have taken 3 posts to explain what the eff this all actually means!

I think you misunderstand me.

I never said that the article originally posted was clear I was alluding to the fact that it can be used for propaganda purposes based on how it was presented. I think that the original article posted is what is NOT clear and a bit misleading/confusing although I am not sure if this was done on purpose.

I found a much clearer article on the same site and if you don't understand something don't wait for everyone to explain it to you in posts, go and look for yourself to get a mental grasp on it.

I was remarking more on the fact that people are taking advantage of this dubious presentation and making it appear as if Obama is somehow confused and signing his name on everything that he sees without reading or comprehending it. They don't seem to me to be genuinely trying to understand why he did it or what the ban means.

I can disagree with his lifting of the ban but I don't think for a second that the man is some fool or simply stupid.

I hope that much is clear.

- Lee

Originally posted by Xtrozero
In the Air Force we call this "all thrust and no vector". Is it just me or do others see Obama going in every direction to whatever the winds of approval might take him? As we all know approval is slippery slope that changes direction daily.

We don’t need a President that blows around like a leaf, we need one that sets a course and sticks to it. Even if you do not agree with the course at least you can see what direction he is going. Right now none of us know what he will do tomorrow.

A President doesn’t experiment on the people, and say oops that didn’t work let’s try something else. He has lived with the Doom and Gloom of the economy and now he saying it’s not as bad as we might think, and he really hasn’t done anything yet to chance it one way or the other.




[edit on 14-3-2009 by Xtrozero]

Slightly off-topic, but do your fellow collegues in the military feel this way as well? Just trying to get a feel for what our military thinks of the new CIC.

Originally posted by mpriebe81
Thank you, that most certainly clears it up a bit!

I still think that it's a little convoluted and just STRANGE though.
So you can destroy an embryo, but not with federal funding. Yeah, that's frickin' weird. I guess he's trying to keep everybody happy with this one, tiptoe-ing through the tulips if you will.

I still think you misunderstand.

What Obama did allows funding for stem cell research from the embryos that are destined to be destroyed in fertilization labs and IVF clinics. He is not allowing the funding of the CREATION of embryos for the expressed purpose of research, but the use of embryos already set to be destroyed.

FYI: George Bushs ban on federal funding did not stop stem cell research.

You do understand that, correct?

Researchers got funding elsewhere, but it made it more difficult to do the research.
You could still "destroy" and embryo but not with federal funding, as you said, for the last eight years!

We were already tip-toeing through the tulips as you put it.
Deny ignorance and look into this.



- Lee

reply to post by lee anoma


No no no, i got all that like 3 posts ago lol.
But thanks for your insights, you obviously know your stuff when it comes to this kind of research

Haven't they found out a way to make stem cells from skin cells?

www.washingtonpost.com...

I agree its a good idea to ban embryo use, if someone says they need embryos to make stem cells, it would be strange given the new breakthrough.

It's probably bad news to the animal-human people, they can't experiment on human embryos to make pigmen, etc.