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In today's Huffington Post:

Excerpt:
On Monday I had the honor of being in the East Room when President Obama signed the executive order reversing former President Bush's stem cell research restrictions. What an experience to witness history! The mood in the room was buoyant. Scientists and advocates watched with huge smiles and even a little disbelief that this day had finally come. Nearly eight years of delay ended with the swish of a pen........

But while the news Monday was about stem cells, in truth this Executive Order is also about something more. It is about believing in science as an expression of hope and optimism, rather than reducing it to malicious intentions or immorality. It's about trusting that the scientific community -- the majority of whom, I believe, were drawn to research out of a desire to help humanity -- will be responsible and ethical in their actions. This moment is about reigniting the engine of innovation that has been a hallmark of the American spirit for as long as there have been Americans. It is about asserting American leadership -- a combination of intelligence, spirit, and ethics -- in science. Overall, it is a vote for reinvestment in the research that can lead to new therapies and cures for so many.

Unfortunately, Michael J. Fox couldn't be in the East Room on Monday, as he's out of the country filming a documentary. I think it's fair to say that no one is more acutely aware than Michael that the stem cell debate has always been about something much bigger than just stem cells. Speaking for him (and I hope he won't mind), the stem cell issue is about research freedom, ensuring that our nation's brightest and most gifted scientific minds leave no promising path unexplored as they work to drive new discoveries that can help all of us. That they now no will no longer have to, in the stem cell arena at least, is a very, very good thing.

Also in the HuffPo today is this entry from Susan Solomon, CEO of the New York Stem Cell Foundation:

Patients before Politics: Putting Science First

Excerpt:
It is crucial to our ultimate success to allow wide access to all of the stem cell lines that have already been created from embryos, as well as to continue to create new lines for comparative and other purposes, including the research that can only be done with human embryonic stem cells. Researchers throughout the world feel that the new "induced pluripotentiary stem cells" (iPS for short) are powerful tools for scientists studying the mechanisms of human disease in their laboratories. However, scientists agree that human embryonic stem cells remain the "gold standard" of research, making the production of new stem cells of urgent importance.

Private funding sources like NYSCF, which are by nature far more nimble than government agencies, are still essential to advancing stem cell research. Private philanthropy is, and will continue to be, a critical and necessary driver of the most innovative and promising stem cell science.

We cannot continue to ask our best scientists to work with one hand tied behind their backs. Finding better treatments and cures for these terrible diseases is urgent work. The New York Stem Cell Foundation will continue to use private philanthropy to ensure that scientists are able to perform the experiments that simply wouldn't be funded or initiated elsewhere, which will continue to change the way scientists and the public view what is possible in this burgeoning medical area. And we hope that Congress will act quickly, once and for all, to put patients before politics by putting science first.