Editor’s note:
This is a promise we missed when we first created out database. We added it as promise No. 514 on March 9, 2009.
President Obama said during the presidential campaign that he opposed restrictions on the use of human embryonic stem cells in scientific research funded by the federal government.
"Rather than restrict the funding of such research, I favor responsible oversight of it, in accord with recent reports from the National Research Council," Obama wrote in response to a questionnaire from a consortium of scientific groups.
Obama signed an executive order on March 9, 2009, reversing President George W. Bush’s orders limiting the research. As a result, we rated Promise No. 513 ("Reverse restrictions on stem cell research") a Promise Kept. The order also directs the secretary of health and human services to issue new guidelines for the research within 120 days through the National Institutes of Health. The guidelines should include "provisions establishing appropriate safeguards," and the guidance should be updated "periodically, as appropriate."
This is fairly vague, and Obama’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, has yet to be confirmed. Still, it’s enough for us to move this promise to In the Works.