Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich said he was ready for a 'firestorm of criticism' after he used an executive order on Tuesday to circumvent the legislature and allocate $10 million in state funds to embryonic stem (ES) cell research. Illinois becomes the fourth state to devote public money to the controversial research after California, New Jersey and Connecticut. The US federal government imposed strict limits on federal funding for ES cell research four years ago.
'My sense of morality argues strongly to not simply sit back and do nothing when children are suffering from juvenile diabetes', said Blagojevich at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he signed the order. 'To simply be afraid to take a position or to act, I think would be immoral'.
The state program, expected to be running by the end of the year, permits research on adult, cord blood and new ES cell lines, but prohibits research involving human cloning, tissue that was bought or sold for research, and embryos from abortions.
Gretchen Livingston, legislative chairwoman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in Illinois, said she hoped the move would help find a cure for her daughter's diabetes. 'This disease will not go away even in adulthood until we've found a cure', she said. 'I'm not content to wait while politics cloud the science and interfere with real progress towards cures'.
Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, condemned the order. 'It's kind of shameful that he would resort to an executive order to use public funds for morally objectionable stem cell research during a time that the General Assembly is not in session,' he said. 'We've all been brought up to believe that the legislature appropriates, not the governor'.
The opposition does not faze Governor Blagojevich, however. 'I feel very good about this decision', he told reporters in Chicago.
Sources and References
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Governor slips stem-cell grant by lawmakers
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Illinois to Pay for Cell Research
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Ill. Plans $10M for Stem Cell Research
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State stem cell research gets $10 mil.
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