Yesterday, by signing the order rescinding the limits on federal funding for stem cell research, President Barack Obama did some thing more: he made it clear that in his government, scientific decisions will be made based on facts, not on politics or ideology.
This is a welcome change, a breath of fresh air that strikes a better balance between moral principles and scientific research, a duality that President Obama qualified yesterday as "a false choice," indicating that science and values are not incompatible. His interpretation is different: rather than considering a form of research that could lead to a cure or relief for debilitating diseases like Parkinson’s, cancer, and others immoral, the president asserted that the moral thing to do is to find a way to care for each other and ease human suffering.
From now on, US scientists, whose stem cell research was previously limited by lack of access to federal funding, will receive government support. President Obama acknowledged the position of those who believe it is immoral to use embryonic material, which is generally destroyed in fertility clinics, for example, in this research. But he provided assurance that the government would only support serious, responsible research.
The presidential order restoring the essential rules for the scientific integrity of governmental decisions is also welcome. This was not exactly the position of the previous administration, which marginalized science from federal government activities and rejected solid discoveries, for example, in the field of global warming, as "not definitive." President Obama ordered his Office of Science and Technology—the mere existence of which is already progress—to ensure that future advisors and decisions consider science and reason, as well as the country’s values.
