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The Chief Judge from the U.S. District Court for Washington D.C. has issued a
ruling stopping all federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to develop into any other cell in the human body and are invaluable for research and potential cures. The District Court ruling has resulted in immediate cuts to tens of millions of dollars of cutting edge research into fundamental questions of cell biology and rapid elimination of federal funding to many lines of current research which offer great promise of medical breakthroughs on conditions including diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and many others. The ruling orders greater restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research than what prevailed under George Bush.
The ruling shines a spotlight on the powerful political forces aggressively pushing the fundamentalist Christian dogma that treats a fertilized egg as a full human being, and treats women’s bodies as nothing more than incubators. It sheds light on how the assault on scientific discovery and scientific thinking did not end with the Bush presidency. And it points to the great harm done by the Obama administration in leading people to seek common ground with fascist forces.
What we need: a determined fight to resist this attack as a crucial part of the battle for revolution and a radically different world.
