Richard Tafoya
Oct 31st, 2006, 01:49 PM
Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/31/snow-stem-cell/
Today at the White House press briefing, Tony Snow claimed that “Any stem cell research that takes place in the United States today is a result of a decision the president made in 2001.” Snow claimed, “no president who has stepped up and made possible more research and encouraged more research than George W. Bush.”
Snow, echoing Karl Rove (http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/23/bolten-rove-stem-cells/), added that “adult and blood cord stem cells” have “demonstrated far more promise” than embryonic stem cells.
Snow’s lesson on stem cell research was chock full of false and misleading information. Here’s a fact check:
1. Bush’s decision did not begin embryonic stem cell research in the U.S. Embryonic stem cell research funded by the Geron Corporation began in the late 1990s at the University of Wisconson and Johns Hopkins University. [Congressional Research Service, pg. 3 (http://www.fas.org/spp/civil/crs/RL31015.pdf)]
2. President Clinton proposed broader federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Bush suspended the Clinton rules and replaced them with his own that restrict federal funding to lines derived prior to August 2001. Clinton did not propose federal funding for embryonic stem cell research earlier because it didn’t exist. [Congressional Research Service, pgs. 5-6 (http://www.fas.org/spp/civil/crs/RL31015.pdf)]
3. Adult and umbilical cord stem cells do not show “more promise” than embryonic stem cells. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine called the White House source for this claim “patently false” and “pure hokum.” [9/21/06 (http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/355/12/1189?query=TOC)]
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/31/snow-stem-cell/
Today at the White House press briefing, Tony Snow claimed that “Any stem cell research that takes place in the United States today is a result of a decision the president made in 2001.” Snow claimed, “no president who has stepped up and made possible more research and encouraged more research than George W. Bush.”
Snow, echoing Karl Rove (http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/23/bolten-rove-stem-cells/), added that “adult and blood cord stem cells” have “demonstrated far more promise” than embryonic stem cells.
Snow’s lesson on stem cell research was chock full of false and misleading information. Here’s a fact check:
1. Bush’s decision did not begin embryonic stem cell research in the U.S. Embryonic stem cell research funded by the Geron Corporation began in the late 1990s at the University of Wisconson and Johns Hopkins University. [Congressional Research Service, pg. 3 (http://www.fas.org/spp/civil/crs/RL31015.pdf)]
2. President Clinton proposed broader federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Bush suspended the Clinton rules and replaced them with his own that restrict federal funding to lines derived prior to August 2001. Clinton did not propose federal funding for embryonic stem cell research earlier because it didn’t exist. [Congressional Research Service, pgs. 5-6 (http://www.fas.org/spp/civil/crs/RL31015.pdf)]
3. Adult and umbilical cord stem cells do not show “more promise” than embryonic stem cells. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine called the White House source for this claim “patently false” and “pure hokum.” [9/21/06 (http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/355/12/1189?query=TOC)]