Human embryonic stem cells research considered illegal and imoral
A judge ruled the ceasing of the federal funded research of human embryonic stem cells which had been approved by President Obama shortly after he became a president.
United States District Court Judge Royce Lamberth issued the temporary order because two Christian doctors, who work exclusively with adult stem cells, asked the court to rule that the government’s funding for the research of embryonic stem cells is against the law. The base of this legal battle is the law known as the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, which says that any research involving a human embryo which is “destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subject to risk of injury or death greater than that allowed under applicable regulations” is against the law. Since 1996 this law has been attached to every bill sent for the Department of Health and Human Services’ approval, a department that supervises the federal government’s health research institution, the National Institutes of Health. The two Christian doctors, which are part of the nonprofit group Nightlight Christian Adoptions, say that working in the research of embryonic stem cells depends on the activity of destroying the embryo which is obviously against the Dickey-Wicker Amendment.
Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that if one step of the embryonic stem cell research project causes the destruction of an embryo, than the entire project should be banned from receiving federal funding. The embryonic stem cell research is done by embryonic stem cell derivation, so the embryo is destroyed. The purpose of the embryonic stem cell research is that of find new ways of treating human diseases and disabilities and from the three different types of stem cells only the embryonic one requires the destruction of a human embryo. In 2001 President George W. Bush banned the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research because he believed that it was immoral and that the purpose, noble as it may be, does not justify the means. President Obama issued an executive order in March 2009 allowing the research saying that scientifically human stem cell research, including human embryonic stem research is allowed if it is performed with responsibility. Since then, the National Institutes of Health has been allowed to use human embryonic stem cells derived from human embryos which were created by in vitro fertilization for the purpose of reproduction, but were no longer needed for their initial purpose, which means that they were going to be destroyed anyway.
