March 9 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama today lifted restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research and called on Congress to provide more money for such study to make the U.S. a leader in the field.

“We will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research,” he said at a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House. “We will vigorously support scientists who pursue this research. And we will aim for America to lead the world in the discoveries it one day may yield.”

The president noted the opposition from some religious leaders to research using stem cells and promised his administration would seek to achieve a “difficult and delicate balance” that takes into account both sides.

The previous policy created “a false choice between sound science and moral values,” he said.

The president’s action fulfilled a campaign pledge and is his latest action to undo some of the signature policies of his predecessor, former President George W. Bush. Bush had banned federal support for research beyond 21 cell colonies created before Aug. 9, 2001, saying it was morally wrong to destroy embryos to develop stem cells. Scientists have said the limits threatened to stunt medical advances.

Potential Cures

Stem cells derived from days-old human embryos have the potential to form any of the body’s 200 or so cell types, such as nerve cells or brain cells, and to repair or replace damaged tissue or organs. Adult stem cells, found in living tissue, have a more limited potential to become other cell types.

Congress voted twice to overturn the Bush restrictions and Bush vetoed the measures both times. Democrats in Congress likely will introduce legislation that puts Obama’s executive order into the law.

Virginia Representative Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the U.S. House, questioned the use of taxpayer money for research on embryonic stem cells.

“Today’s action is about forcing taxpayers to fund ethically troublesome -- and unproven -- research that destroys life,” Cantor said in a statement.

The National Right to Life Committee issued a statement criticizing Obama, saying his order will lead to the destruction of human life and may lead to federal funding of research that creates embryos for study, which is still prohibited under existing law.

‘Slippery Slope’

The action “places our society on a very steep, very slippery slope,” the group’s spokesman, Douglas Johnson said.

Obama’s order leaves in place a current law that bars federal support for research that causes the destruction of human embryos.

The president in his remarks promised “strict guidelines” for research and that his order will ensure that the government “never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction.”

The National Institutes of Health, the government’s chief health-research agency, will have 120 days to develop new rules on stem cells, the White House said. Officials of the NIH have said they can prepare the guidelines more quickly than that.

The NIH has already begun requesting proposals for research projects using some of the $10 billion it was awarded from the economic stimulus legislation passed by Congress last month. Obama today asked Congress “to provide further support for this research.”

Scientific Advice

Obama also is ordering the White House Office of Science and Technology to create guidelines to incorporate “scientific integrity” into decision-making by U.S. agencies.

“We view what happened with stem-cell research in the last administration as one manifestation of the failure to think carefully about how government use of scientific advice occurs,” Harold Varmus, a Nobel prize winner who is president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said in a conference call with reporters arranged by the administration yesterday.

Varmus is co-chairman of the president’s scientific advisory board.

In the same briefing, Melody C. Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, said the elevation of science will extend beyond stem-cell research and into policies on health, energy and environmental programs, including global warming.

Eschewing Ideology

Obama also signed a presidential memorandum directing the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop recommendations on making sure that scientific advisers on government policy are appointed based on their credentials and experience rather than ideology.

The Bush administration had come under criticism from Democrats and some independent researchers for pressuring government scientists to tailor their conclusions to support goals on such issues of climate change.

“Promoting science isn’t just about providing resources, it is also about protecting free and open inquiry,” Obama said. “It is about letting scientists like those here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it’s inconvenient.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Edwin Chen in Washington at Echen32@bloomberg.net; Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 9, 2009 13:02 EDT