Obama frees stem cell research from Bush-era ban — VOICES for REASON

President Obama has finally done something good! On Monday, he signed an executive order rescinding the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The order reverses a policy imposed by President Bush in 2001, forbidding scientists receiving federal research funds from creating and studying new lines of embryonic stem cells.

The Bush ban was driven by religious opposition to this crucial area of medical research, and has been a major obstacle to progress toward cures for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Bush even used his first presidential veto a few years ago to block Congress from removing his funding restrictions. Obama’s decision defangs this faith-based assault on science.

Now just to be perfectly clear, I am not praising the use of federal tax dollars to fund scientific research. (I think all research should be privately funded.) What I’m praising is the fact that this crucial area of research will no longer be hampered by state-enforced religious dogmas. As Yaron Brook said at the time of the Bush veto:

It is only because science today is so dominantly funded by the government that restrictions on federal funding can wreak the devastation they have—severely hindering a promising area of potentially life-saving medical research.

If science were left free, as it should be, funded solely by private sources, a scientist would not have to plead the merits of his work before a majority of politicians, however ignorant or prejudiced by religious or other dogmas they might be.

The government should get out of the business of funding science. But so long as it is involved, it must scrupulously respect the separation of church and state. Its funding decisions must be made on rationally demonstrable, not faith-based, grounds. Bush’s veto clearly violates this principle.

Indeed, and Obama’s removal of Bush’s ban is a step in the right direction.

Of course, Obama has two feet, and with the other one he has been stepping in the opposite direction, continuing Bush-era faith-based policies. But for the moment at least, in this narrow area of science policy, we can enjoy a slight reprieve from the bad news, and relish the prospect of scientific progress on a crucially important research frontier.