Obama overturns Bush administration's limition on embryonic stem stell research; REVOKES funding for ethical research into 'pluripotent' stem cells

Today, President Obama lifted the Bush administration's limits on embryonic stem cell research:

The president on Monday signaled a clear shift in tone from the Bush administration on a broad range of scientific issues.

Obama overturned an order signed by President Bush in 2001 that barred the National Institutes of Health from funding research on embryonic stem cells beyond using 60 cell lines that existed at that time.

Bush twice vetoed legislation that would have expanded federally funded embryonic stem cell research. Those siding with Bush say scientific advances allow researchers to conduct groundbreaking research without destroying human embryos.

House Republicans have rallied in opposition to the order, including Catholic House Republican Leader John Boehner:

"This decision runs counter to President Obama's promise to be a president for all Americans. For a third time in his young presidency, the President has rolled back important protections for innocent life, further dividing our nation at a time when we need greater unity to tackle the challenges before us. I fully support stem cell research, but I draw the line at taxpayer-funded research that requires the destruction of human embryos, and millions of Americans feel similarly. As we move forward, I am hopeful that the President will re-evaluate this and other controversial decisions that put government at odds with the sanctity of human life. Non-embryonic stem cell research is not only showing great promise in the laboratory, but its applications are already being used to treat scores of diseases and medical conditions. Indeed, science and respect for human life can coexist. Politicians in Washington would be well-served to recognize this fact before they ask taxpayers to subsidize the destruction of innocent human life simply to advance a particular agenda. Instead of asking taxpayers to pay for efforts that destroy life, Congress and the Administration should support bipartisan solutions like Rep. Randy Forbes' Patients First Act, which would promote stem cell research that is actually getting results."

and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:

"The administration's announcement on embryonic stem cell research represents a troubling shift in U.S. policy. With this announcement, the government is, for the first time, incentivizing the creation and destruction of human embryos at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer. I support biomedical research and I believe the administration would be far better served by directing taxpayer funds to research on non-embryonic stem cells, which is both effective and ethical."

Joined by "Snowflake families" (children, who were formerly stored embryos and their parents), Representative Chris H. Smith stated that:

President Obama has chosen to turn back the clock, and starting today, will force taxpayers to subsidize the unethical, the unworkable over what works, and hype and hyperbole over hope. ...

Assertions that leftover embroyos are better off dead so that their stem cells can be derived is dehumanizing and cheapens human life. There is no such thing as leftover human life. Ask the snowflake children -- cryogenically frozen embroyos who were adopted -- their lives are precious and priceless.

(Click here to read Rep. Smith's full statement on Obama's stem cell order).

In 2005, Rep. Smith introduced the Cord Blood Stem Cell Act of 2005 to provide for the collection and maintenance of human [umbelical] cord blood stem cells for the treatment of patients and research.

The Democrats for Life also issued a forceful denunciation of Obama's decision:

DFLA has had a productive relationship both with the campaign and the early stages of the new Administration. To have no opportunity to weigh in on this controversial issue signals a cooling of our relations. DFLA is against President Obama’s decision, period. There are workable and successful options available to private sector research operations that use umbilical cord blood and non embryonic stem cells. To frame this decision as a necessity to cure finding medical research is not accurate. While we have zero confidence that a call for reversal of this Executive Order will prevail, we are hopeful that the President will heed our call for common ground solutions in dealing with pro-life Democrats.

* * *
Update! As First Things' Wesley J. Smith points out, "We all know that President Obama rescinded the Bush funding restrictions for ESCR. But that isn’t all he did today. He also rescinded Executive Order 13435 of June 20, 2007.":

The Administration didn’t publicize this part of the President’s nasty work, but the now dead 2007 Bush order explicitly required funding for “alternative methods” of stem cell research—such as the new induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSC), a process that changes skin or other cells such as hair follicles into pluripotent stem cells without making or destroying embryos. IPSCs offer so much promise—and all without the ethical contentiousness of human cloning and embryonic stem cell research. Indeed, these alternative methods are one of the few areas in which people who are pro-life and pro-choice, conservative and liberal, pro and anti-ESCR can agree upon, the very type of policy that this president said he wanted to pursue.

Relevant Reading

• Only a week ago it was reported by the Washington Post that "Scientists have developed what appears to be a safer way to create a promising alternative to embryonic stem cells, boosting hopes that such cells could sidestep the moral and political quagmire that has hindered the development of a new generation of cures."
  
• Executive Order on Embryonic Stem Cells 'A Sad Victory of Politics over Science and Ethics,' Says Cardinal Rigali United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. March 9, 2009.
  
• Perpetuating a Needless Stem-Cell War: Obama's decision is bad ethics, bad science, and bad politics, by Ryan T. Anderson. Weekly Standard March 9, 2009.
  
• Obama’s False Choice: What the president could stand to learn from his predecessor on science policy, by Yuval Levin. National Review March 9, 2009.
  
• Stem Cells: A Political History, by Joseph Bottum and Ryan T. Anderson. First Things November 2008.
  
• The President Politicizes Stem-Cell Research: Taxpayers have a right to be left out of it, by Robert P. George and Eric Cohen. Wall Street Journal March 10, 2009.
  

Rep Chris Smith on President Bush’s approach to fighting AIDS in Africa

Rep Smith wrote a piece in National Review Online today about his recent trip to Uganda. There he witnessed the efforts of our government in combating AIDS. This is a must read in understanding the truth about the Bush administration's approach to fighting AIDS. Some highlights:

The U.S. government has a wide array of agencies on the ground managing HIV-AIDS program funds, including the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes for Health, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Program partners include the African Medical and Research Foundation, Children's AIDS Fund, the AIDS Information Center, and Catholic Relief Services. Only weeks after getting the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) approved, funds went into the field in Uganda and were paying for drug therapy, testing and counseling, and other approaches, including the promotion of abstinence and fidelity in committed relationships.

---

Before leaving for the visit to Uganda, we heard much criticism of its "ABC" program: Abstinence, Be Faithful, and Condoms. Many of those with whom we met are associated with faith-based organizations that promote only the abstinence and fidelity aspects of the ABC program. A representative of one such organization, the Uganda Youth Forum, said that the youth they serve say the organization is unique because it challenges the youth to be abstinent without compromise. Other organizations that include condom use in their education give only a passing reference to abstinence and fidelity that is then undermined by emphasis on the use of condoms. The representative added that sexually active youth are appreciative when someone finally tells them that they can change their behavior, and they do change their behavior.

I believe the Uganda PEPFAR program is a model for handling HIV-AIDS prevention and treatment using a comprehensive public-private partnership. It should be adopted by other developing nations around the world that are also fighting the AIDS pandemic. While PEPFAR does not replace the Global Fund as a means of fighting AIDS, it has been a more immediately successful way of saving lives. John Roberts and many other victims of AIDS are alive and well today because we decided to create a program that suits our views of how this threat should be addressed, and we got funds into the field quickly.

Profile: Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey

Chris Smith - "the lion of life on Capitol Hill"

Congressman Chris Smith was born in Rahway, NJ, and is a resident of Hamilton, NJ. He has enjoyed a long career of public service representing NJ's Fourth Congressional District since 1981, when he was sworn into office at the age of twenty seven. During his years in office he has earned worldwide recognition in the areas of veterans' affairs and human rights, "from children forced to toil in sweatshops to women kidnapped and sold into lives of prostitution to unborn children whose very chances to live are threatened."

Among his many achievements is the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Law, the nation's first to specifically address the issue of human trafficking in the U.S. and overseas, providing resources for government prosecutors as well as assistance to women helping them rebuild their lives (originally signed by Pres. Clinton and re-authorized under Pres. Bush in 2003). He has also played a role in various healthcare issues, co-chairing the Congressional Alzheimer's Task Force, Coalition for Autism Research and Education, and Congressional Spina Bifida Caucus.

Regarding his service in defense of the unborn, Christopher Smith currently co-chairs the bi-partisan Congressional Pro Life Caucus. In January 2004 he Silent No More at the 31st Annual March For Life.

In March 2004 he delivered a speech to the House defending Unborn Victims of Violence Protection Act, which was signed by President Bush the following month.

Smith has recently joined Senator Sam Brownback (R.-KS) in sponsoring the latest pro-life legislative effort: The Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (S. 2466; H.R. 4420). The Act would require that abortionists, prior to the procedure, convey to patients who are twenty weeks or more into their pregnancy both verbally and in print (via brochure), notification that an abortion inflicts pain on an unborn child, and that they have the option to anesthetize the baby. As Smith says in his introduction to the bill (May 20, 2004): "Women have the right to know the facts about the medical development of unborn children and that they have the option to minimize or eliminate the pain an unborn child would feel during an abortion."

The nature of the bill is such that skeptics might question the purpose of "eliminating a child's pain" by anasthesia before killing it -- is this simply another means to salve the guilty conscience? It might appear that way, if you listened to the endorsement of Francis Kissling of 'Catholics for Free Choice'. But the motivation of Senator Brownback and Rep. Smith is clearly different. In the same manner as the Unborn Victims of Violence Act gives legal recognition to the humanity of the unborn when a "child in utero" is injured or killed during commission of a federal crime, so would the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act advance the recognition of the humanity of the unborn. These may be relatively small pieces of legislation, but they are by no means insignificant in the process of restoring the recognition of the humanity of the unborn -- an integral step to establishing a "culture of life" in our nation.

In an interview with the National Catholic Reporter during the 2004 election, Smith spoke to Joe Feuerherd on the need for Catholics to speak out in defense of the unborn and challenged the doublespeak of Senator Kerry:

The church needs to be willing to bend into the wind, even if it is a hurricane force, and risk being profoundly hated by society" as it pursues its antiabortion agenda, says New Jersey Republican Christopher Smith. If such a stance makes the hierarchy "persona non grata with The New York Times, it's worth it."

"If the actual deed of abortion is what I and Catholics and Protestants and so many others say it is -- an act of violence against children -- then why wouldn't you want to treat it as a severe act of child abuse and exploitative of women, rather than something you can disregard?

"If Kerry or someone like him were to say 'I am for abortion' then they would have my opposition and I will argue against them, but I will at least respect them," Smith told NCR. "But I find it very hard to respect someone who says I'm against it, but I'm going to vote for it, I'm going facilitate it, I'm going to defend it, I'm going to fund it [and] I'm going to try to make it reach the four corners of the globe by repealing the Mexico City policy [which restricts U.S. foreign aid funds to countries with liberal abortion laws]."

Asks Smith: "How hard would any of us fight if it was our child at risk? Well, these are our children. We are our brothers' and sisters' keepers."

Source: "Abortion is a fundamental issue, says House pro-life leader", by Joe Feuerherd. National Catholic Reporter July 2, 2004.

RenewAmerica columnist Paul Weyrich has mentioned that Smith's "admirable devotion to the cause has won him the accolade 'the lion of life on Capitol Hill.'" Smith's solid pro-life voting record and 0% rating by NARAL leads me to conclude that he certainly merits the title.

It may be too soon to contemplate prospects for the 2008 presidential race, and I don't know whether Rep. Smith has any political ambitions beyond the House, but I believe he would make a great candidate for the presidency -- a Catholic that we can all be proud of. If such were the case, the fact that he had the highest rating of any Republican (72.7%) on the "Catholic Scorecard" devised by the Democrats should calm the fears of any KerryCatholics.

Catholic Republican challenges China's Forced Abortion Program

Two United States Congressmen are attempting to draw world awareness to China's practice of coerced abortions by calling for the cancellation of 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing unless it halts its oppressive "one child" population control policy. Robert B. Bluey reports for Human Events Online:

Representatives Chris Smith (R.-N.J.) and Tom Tancredo (R.-Colo.) made the demands on China at a congressional hearing called Tuesday to shed light on the case of Mao Hengfeng, who was forced to undergo an abortion and is currently being subjected to torture. Mao's pregnancy 15 years ago violated China's family planning policy, and her protests since then landed her in one of the country's "re-education through labor" camps.

"One of the few things we have available to us right now is this issue of the Olympics," Tancredo said. "We could draw a lot of attention, even if we could get the movement started. Whether it's successful or not, if there was actually a real threat to China, perhaps the world might step away from this because of the ugly kind of press and attention it's getting . . ." [READ MORE].

As Vice-Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Chris Smith told Human Events that he intends to "propose a resolution at the beginning of the 109th Congress addressing this situation in China." Rep. Smith joins Arther E. Dewey, assistant secretary for population, refugees and migration at the U.S. State Department, in protesting the reluctance of certain members of the United Nations and the human rights community to include forced abortion and sterilization among its list of human rights violations.

Many people are aware of China's "one child" policy (I myself can recall learning about it in college). What is little known, says Smith, is the devastating emotional toll it has on China's women. According to Smith, "a State Department human rights report shows that 500 women commit suicide in China every day because of the coercive population control program. "As a matter of fact," Smith said, "the report points out that 56 percent of the world's female suicides occur in the People's Republic of China." (Source: Keith Peters, Family News In Focus).

• "Congressmen Warn China: Stop Abuses or Lose 2008 Olympics", by Robert B. Bluey. Human Events Online. Dec. 15, 2004.
  
• Statement of Chris Smith on China's Human Rights Violations and Coercion in One Child Policy Enforcement, Dec. 14, 2004.
  
• Testimony of Ma Dongfang, Victim of Planned Birth Policy. Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives. December 14, 2004 Dec. 14, 2004.
  
• "Better Ten Graves Than One Extra Birth: China's Systemic Use of Coercion to Meet Population Quotas", soon-to-be-published English translation of the 2003 Chinese expose by the Laogai Research Foundation (LRF).
  

Representatives Chris Smith (R.-N.J.) is Catholic. Tom Tancredo (R.-Colo.) is Presbyterian. Both are staunch pro-life Republicans and have earned the scorn and 0% rating by NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) -- A mark of honor, in my book.