President Obama plans to sign executive order to overturn Bush’s policy on embryonic stem cell research on Monday

By Ed Henry
CNN Sr. White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is planning to sign an executive order Monday to overturn Bush-era policy that limited federal tax dollars for embryonic-stem-cell research, according to administration officials familiar with the deliberations.

Obama’s move will be hailed by advocates for those suffering from a host of afflictions — ranging from diabetes to Parkinson’s disease — who believe that an expansion of stem-cell research could boost medical progress toward eradicating the debilitating diseases.

But many conservatives object to the destruction of human embryos because they contend it ends a human life.

The officials said the administration is planning a Monday event at the White House in which Obama will overturn the executive order signed by President George W. Bush in August 2001 that barred the National Institutes of Health from funding research on embryonic stem cells beyond using 60 cell lines that existed at that time.