During the presidential campaign, self-identified pro-life supporters of Barack Obama claimed that despite differences between Obama and John McCain on abortion, the two candidates had the same position on embryonic stem cell research. The truth is, though, that they did not. Although McCain supported efforts to lift Bush administration funding limitations for research on cell lines derived from IVF embryos left in a cryopreserved state in assisted reproduction clinics and then donated for research, he emphatically opposed human cloning for any purpose, including the creation of human embryos by cloning (or any other procedure) for research in which they would be killed. McCain’s position on human embryos was “no creation for destruction.” By contrast, Obama supported legislation that would allow human cloning for the purpose of creating embryos for research so long as those nascent human beings were then destroyed or discarded and not implanted. In his executive order on stem-cell research policy, President Obama has gone even farther by authorizing the use of federal taxpayer dollars for research involving the destruction of human embryos created by cloning. This is an unprecedented and truly radical step.

RCP: Morally Unserious in the Extreme – Krauthammer

Washington Post: Behind the Cell Curve: Why is Obama Ignoring a Scientific Fact? – Parker