In a meeting with top U.S. scientists and stem cell researchers on Monday, President Obama signed an executive order that effectively overturns the Bush administration’s limits on funding for embryonic stem cells. The memorandum provides for an increase in federal funding of stem cell research, and should expand the number of cell lines for which researchers can receive funding. This move is both a departure from the policies of the Bush administration and a protection of what Obama has dubbed “scientific integrity.” As Obama said on Monday, “It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology.” The move is promising and should increase the chance that stem cell research will lead to long anticipated cures for a wide range of diseases.

There has always been a great deal of potential for an amenable government to provide aid to stem cell research. Obama’s memorandum does not specifically deal with the certain types or numbers of stem cell lines that scientists can use. Instead, the National Institute of Health will have 120 days to establish new research guidelines, meaning that the number of accessible stem cell lines—which Bush had limited to 21—should soon be in the hundreds. This will allow scientists to work on new lines and start to draw together cells of different sources, which should lead to more rapid advances.

Obama’s measures separate Bush’s ethical ideology from the truth of stem cell research. The ethical arguments levied against stem cells are unconvincing. The use of stem cells is not a destruction of human life. The embryos from which these cells are cultivated are merely a collection of cells—with no moral status as persons—and would otherwise be discarded. Yet, the use of this collection of cells could have life-saving implications.
 
The restrictive policies of the previous administration allowed religious beliefs to hinder scientific advancement. Moreover, due to the limitations of the past eight years, progress will be slow. As Dr. Curt Civin, director of the University of Maryland Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine said, “We’ve got eight years of science to make up for, now the silly restrictions are lifted.” The concrete benefits of Obama’s policy reversal may not be seen for many years.

With the bold support for stem cell research this memorandum provides, however, researchers and the public should remember other possible sources of stem cells and types of research for disease treatment. Given the divisiveness of this issue, support for non-embryonic stem cell research should also remain. Fortunately, this memorandum will set the tone for all types of scientific research throughout the administration. “I would simply say that this memorandum is not concerned solely—or even specifically—with stem cell research,” said Harold Varmus, chairman of the White Houses’ Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. This referendum is not meant to be politicizing, but will also separate ideology from broader policy debates such as renewable energy and climate change.

President Obama’s memorandum should also be a boon for Harvard’s stem cell initiatives, for it should stimulate our research programs. This excitement is somewhat attenuated, however in light of our university’s current science related woes. It is unfortunate that we have slowed construction of the science complex in Allston, which has pushed stem cell research into old laboratories unequipped for such advanced procedures. We have already begun to witness the fallout created by the Allston delay: a few prominent professors of Molecular and Cellular Biology, displaced by the recent changes, have threatened to leave the university. We hope that, as Obama’s policy changes take effect in the next couple of years, Harvard will take advantage of these new scientific opportunities by providing its professors and researchers with the needed resources. Meanwhile, we are heartened by this new support for scientific progress in Washington.