A Brief History…

By Bradley J. Fikes

A federal judge has overturned Obama’s 2009 executive order loosening most of the Bush limits on human embryonic stem cell funding. The decision has thrown researchers into perplexity, as they try to determine what is now legally permitted.

But the New York Times is even more confused, judging by a strange and overwrought story by Gardiner Harris about the decision. Harris writes:

“For scientists, the problem with the judge’s reasoning is that it may render all scientific work regarding embryonic stem cells illegal — including work allowed under the more restrictive policy adopted by President George W. Bush in 2001.”

That’s false. Bush’s policy, and the law authorizing it, only apply to human embryonic stem cell research using federal funds. The story mentions this fact. A lot of embryonic stem cell research is funded with non-federal funds, such as through California’s $3 billion stem cell research program.

So there is no way that “all scientific work regarding embryonic stem cells” can be made illegal under the decision. And the story doesn’t attempt to say how this could happen. It even quotes the plaintiffs saying they’re not seeking to ban all embryonic stem cell research, just to reinstate Bush’s standards.

Apparently, no NYT editor saw the contradiction, or cared about it.

Also strange was Harris’ second-graf description of how human embryonic stem cell researchers viewed the decision:

“The ruling came as a shock to scientists at the National Institutes of Health and at universities across the country, which had viewed the Obama administration’s new policy and the grants provided under it as settled law.”

Since it was under litigation, Obama’s executive order hardly qualifies as “settled law”. Those who thought so wasn’t paying attention. Or perhaps they were misinformed by relying on the New York Times.

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DISCLAIMER: This is my opinion and not necessarily that of my employer, the North County Times.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 at 10:14 pm and is filed under media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.