Kudos to President Obama… really…. well, sort of…

This story is one of the first times that I have been truly proud of an Obama legislative signing (I think in this case, it is an executive order, but nonentheless).  Note: I have been proud of him before, but just not his legislative agenda.

President Obama has signed an executive order that allows federal funding of stem cell research on new lines of stem cells, not just the 20-some-odd lines that were in existence before President Bush limited funding on new lines early in his presidency.  Why am I excited for this?  Well, I’m not actually.  In fact, I am opposed to federal funding for stem cell research for multiple reasons (1.Federal dollars shouldn’t be used for scientific research – The private sector has done more in the avenue of science than the federal government could have ever dreamed of. Private dollars should be used for this sort of thing. 2. I don’t believe that embryos (human lives) should be sifted through,  like we are panning for gold. These are human lives.

What I am happy for is a declaration that federal dollars (under his watch) will not be used for human cloning research.  Obama calls it “dangerous” and “profoundly wrong.”  I applaud my president for taking a stand on a moral issue.  He should be commended for this.

There will be a time and a place to discuss this action further.  Plenty can be said about the reasons for this decision, but today, our president should be commended for one stand he took.

My hope is that whatever moral backbone birthed this decision would start to permeate other areas of his legislative policy, including embryological stem cell research and abortion

~ by michaelldouglas on March 9, 2009.