On this, Obama has nothing to say. He leaves it entirely to the scientists. This is more than moral abdication. It is acquiescence to the mystique of "science" and its inherent moral benevolence. How anyone as sophisticated as Obama can believe this within living memory of Joseph Mengele and Tuskegee and the fake (and coercive) South Korean stem cell research is hard to fathom.
While those new regulations will almost certainly be aimed at eventually allowing the federal government to fund the direct creation and destruction of human embryos for research purposes by any means (in vitro fertilization and even human cloning), such a regulation would currently run afoul of the "Dickey-Wicker Amendment" (DWA) -- named after its original authors, former Representatives Jay Dickey of Arkansas and now-Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi.
DWA has been attached to the Health and Human Services appropriations bill every year since 1996. The provision reads as follows:
- SEC. 510. (a) 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 greater than that allowed for research on fetuses in utero under 45 CFR 46.208(a)(2) and section 498(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 289g(b)).
- (b) For purposes of this section, the term 'human embryo or embryos' includes any organism, not protected as a human subject under 45 CFR 46 as of the date of the enactment of this Act, that is derived by fertilization, parthenogenesis, cloning, or any other means from one or more human gametes or human diploid cells.
For 12 years, DWA has effectively prohibited the use of federal funds to support any research that would endanger or destroy human embryos. Since the days of the Clinton administration, in practice, the amendment has been interpreted as restricting federal funding for the research in which human embryos are actually created and destroyed. But -- as a loophole for stem cell research to move forward -- it was further interpreted as placing no restraints on research involving any stem cells that may result from such destruction. In a word, for the past 12 years: no to using federal dollars to destroy embryos; yes to limited funding on what might arise from the destruction of those embryos (and under President Bush, funding for research only on the lines of embryonic stem cells produced prior to August 9, 2001).
So now that the Bush policy has been revoked, the funding of research involving embryonic stem cells from any source (not just from embryos destroyed prior to August 9, 2001) is now fair game: whether those stem cells proceed from "spare" IVF embryos, or IVF embryos specially created just for research.
Most notably, however, the NIH now has free rein to arrange for funding stem cell research that depends on the special creation of "research embryos" and their destruction -- even though the actual creation/destruction would have to be accomplished with non-federal funding as long as DWA remains in place. Which is to say, the President has essentially given the NIH an opportunity to develop plans for incentivizing the special creation of human embryos purely for research purposes (for example embryos that will be known carriers of genetic defects) by whatever means by offering enormous financial grants for stem cell research that depends directly on such embryos. Of course, that could be streamlined all the more if DWA were not standing in the way.
So, it comes as no surprise that Diana DeGette (D-CO) is on record as indicating her intent to attack DWA legislatively. "Dickey-Wicker is 13 years old now," she recently told the New York Times, "and I think we need to review these policies." She added, "I've already talked to several pro-life Democrats about Dickey-Wicker, and they seemed open to the concept of reversing the policy if we could show that it was necessary to foster this research."
Nor should we be surprised that the journal Nature has joined in the attack. An editorial published in its March 26 issue aggressively advocates for rolling back DWA:
In force since 1996, the Dickey-Wicker amendment badly needs updating to fit the current research reality, if not outright repeal. But because it affects fewer researchers than did the funding restrictions on stem-cell research, scientists who spent hours in public outreach trying to overturn the stem-cell ban may well want to return to their labs, leaving this lower-profile law's implications unquestioned.
Such attitudes are understandable, but wrong. Both the Dickey-Wicker amendment and the new guidelines on human embryonic stem-cell research being drawn up by the National Institutes of Health merit an intense national conversation. In particular, that dialogue should thoroughly explore attitudes towards studying different types of embryos -- not just those left over from fertility procedures, but also those that might be specially created for research.
Some might claim that the growing momentum to lift DWA is simply to ensure that federal funding can be made available for research on left over IVF embryos. Indeed, this is the express intent of bills (H.R. 873 and S. 487) that have recently been introduced in both the House and Senate. Based on multiple conversations I have had with persons immersed in the stem cell field, however, I consider the expression of such intent to be a charade. Society has already condoned the creation (and attendant waste) of human embryos to help infertile couples achieve pregnancy. So once new legislation induces a majority of Americans to vouchsafe using those same left-over embryos to "help sick people," what moral argument will convince them that we should not create embryos solely for helping them as well? Rolling back DWA is about one thing above all: to open a legal pathway for the direct federal funding of the creation and destruction of human embryos for research, whether by in vitro fertilization, so-called "therapeutic cloning" or other means. Let no one be fooled.
