Obama's Promise on Stem Cells: Unfulfilled

Stem cell researchers are getting restive. Many scientists fully expected that President Barack Obama would sign an executive order reversing the Bush Administration's stem cell policy the minute he took his hand off the Bible. For the past 2 weeks, the word has been that an executive order was imminent. Last week, following a meeting with House of Representatives Democrats, came word that Obama might wait for Congress to repass legislation vetoed by then-President George W. Bush. Obama apparently feels working with Congress to pass legislation on the matter would strengthen the move, but it's unclear why he’s waiting to issue the order, which he promised to do repeatedly on the campaign trail. Another reason might be that the president wanted to get his health team assembled first—a plan that has fallen into disarray with the withdrawal of Tom Daschle as his nominee for HHS secretary.  
          

Now, almost 3 weeks into the new presidency, two advocacy groups have decided it's time to step up the political pressure. On Friday, the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research sent Obama a letter urging Obama to get moving on the executive order. And the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation says it will send out an "action alert" today asking its people to write to the president to tell him how much they are looking forward to that executive order. 

(Update, 3pm: JDRF's alert is out.)