Washington D.C., Apr 29, 2009 / 23:03 pm
Archbishop of Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali has challenged Prof. Doug Kmiec’s defense of new National Institutes of Health guidelines on embryonic stem cell research. Cardinal Rigali charged that the regulations are “broader” and “more sweeping” than any proposed in the past and cannot truthfully be called a “pro-life” policy.
On April 17 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a request for public comment on its draft guidelines which permitted funding for research involving human embryonic stem cells “that were derived from embryos created by in vitro fertilization (IVF) for reproductive purposes and were no longer needed for that purpose.”
The NIH said that somatic cell nuclear transfer—more commonly known as cloning—will not be allowed under the guidelines.
Kmiec, a pro-life Catholic who became a prominent supporter of President Barack Obama in the 2008 election, discussed NIH guidelines in his Catholic News Service column. Kmiec praised the guidelines as “ethically sensitive” and in some respects “more strict” than President George W. Bush’s policy, which barred funding for research on embryonic stem cells from embryos destroyed after August 9, 2001.
Saying President Obama had taken “reproductive” cloning “off the table,” Kmiec claimed the federal government was moving “in a noticeably more Catholic-friendly direction.”