Here we go again.
A carefully crafted program, one that allowed just a few centers to effect critical research with real stem cells is about to get the axe.
These trials and research protocols were employing stem cells extracted and collected (carefully) from aborted fetuses.
One of the biggest hits will be at the National Institutes of Health. A series of programs, with funding of about $ 31 million will be terminated. Each of the studies passed an ethics review panel.
The other big hit will be at almost 200 centers around the US that have been seeking cures or vaccines for HIV (you know- the disease that TheDonald promises he is addressing- but isn’t), cystic fibrosis, etc. These centers received about $ 84 million in 2018- but their programs probably won’t be renewed, nor is it clear that new programs could ever begin under this new ban.
The only immediate termination is the contract that University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) has for about $ 2 million, which was specifically involved with HIV drug testing. This study has been proceeding for almost 6 years now- and was due for an additional 90 day extension period.
Assuming this ‘policy’ (political, not science-based) is followed, any new applicant wishing to employ aborted tissue will have to issue a specific announcement for THAT project in the Federal Register, and the ethics panel that will govern the research must allow public nominations to that board. Then, it gets better.
NO MORE THAN HALF the panel can be scientifically trained. (Yes, you read that right!) Of the 14 to 20 people who constitute the board, there must be one theologian (read that as WrongWing Christian), an ethicist, a physician, plus an attorney. And, once the notice is published in the Federal Register, there must be a 30 day waiting period before any board appointments are made. And, instead of the routine practice of ethics review boards or Institutional Review Boards, these new panels can delay their findings for up to 150 days- and that deadline only requires them to send their findings to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, not to proceed with the study.(The HHS Secretary can also overrule the committee for almost any reason.)
And, you thought climate change research and environmental controls were getting the short shrift under TheDonald.
There are so many diseases that need to have a cure found, do you think that will ever happen?
If we keep blocking the potential avenues, it will be very slow or not at all, Martha!
A theologian???? Speechless. That’s actually what scares me the most, as outrageous as this all is.
I’m with you, Alana!