Jul 13, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The Illinois Family Institute condemned Gov. Rod Blagojevich's decision to create a public fund that will support embryonic stem-cell research.
The governor issued an executive order July 12 that instructs the Illinois Department of Public Health to create the Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute and disburse $10 million to support medical research for cures and treatments. The institute is expected to be up and running by the end of the year.
"The governor has done an end-run around the legislative process to fund research that advances a utilitarian agenda in which the end justifies the means," said the family institute’s executive director Peter LaBarbera in a press release July 12.
According to LaBarbera, Blagojevich has “misuse[d] his executive power to endorse liberal-agenda positions on life issues at the expense of reasoned democratic debate that would let the people of Illinois have their say on these matters.”