Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said in a speech last week she would roll back President Bush's funding restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research if she's elected. She also said she would prohibit political appointees from limiting research based on anything but "scientific reasons."
Kiera McCaffrey, director of communications for the Catholic League, said that means morality will go by the wayside.
“It’s one thing to allow the research which many of us are against, it’s another thing to force American taxpayers to pay for it," she told Family News in Focus.
Republican candidates Rudy Guiliani and John McCain also have voiced opposition to the Bush funding policy.
Carrie Gordon Earll, senior bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said she worries Bush’s tough stand will be erased.
“One of our concerns is whoever sits in the Oval Office in the next term will either uphold that policy or they will strike down that policy, and, unfortunately, it looks that black and white," she said.
Gene Tarne with Do No Harm said science should not be given free rein concerning such highly controversial research.
“Everyone in a Democratic society, their voice should be heard in trying to come up with what those rules and guidelines are," he said, "and there should be a concern that if we just leave it all to scientists, that’s something that people should really be concerned about.”
