Finally a President Obama pick I can support (or maybe not)

A leading scientist who helped unravel the human genetic code and is known for finding common ground between belief in God and science is President Barack Obama’s choice to lead the National Institutes of Health.

An administration official said Dr. Francis Collins, arguably the nation’s most influential geneticist, is the president’s soon-to-be-announced pick. The official spoke on condition of anonymity Wednesday pending the formal announcement.

The NIH is the nation’s premier medical research agency, directing $29.5 billion to spur innovative science that leads to better health. Collins, an early gene-hunter, would come to the job not just with the scientific credentials, but with a reputation for translating the complexities of DNA into language the everyday American can understand.

The folksy Collins led the Human Genome Project that, along with a competing private company, mapped the genetic code or, as he famously called it, “the book of human life.”

“It is humbling for me, and awe-inspiring, to realize that we have caught the first glimpse of our own instruction book, previously known only to God,” he said at a 2000 White House ceremony marking release of the genome’s first draft.[reference]

I have heard this rumored for awhile, but didn’t give it much credence. Though this will freak out some on the left whose philosophy is scientism or that anything that can be achieved by science should be done. For example the announcement today that sperm was created out of embryonic stem-cells is pure science without moral boundaries. The pope pointed out in his latest encyclical the problems with the misuse of the word ethics and I can only hope that Dr. Francis Collins will bring a correct view of ethics to the NIH.

Nevermind: Didn’t realize that he supported embryonic stem-cell research in his book. Should have know better.

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has given embryonic stem-cell researchers the green light to apply for federal funding of their work with minimal restrictions under new guidelines that took effect July 7. However, the NIH rejected the overwhelming public input expressing concerns over the morally questionable research, which thus far has failed to yield any beneficial therapies, unlike adult stem-cells.
In a press release, the NIH states that the new guidelines “will ensure that NIH-funded research in this area is ethically responsible, scientifically worthy, and conducted in accordance with applicable law.”

The NIH directives were a response to President Barack Obama’s Executive Order (EO) 13505 that rescinded an earlier executive order from the Bush administration in 2001. That order prohibited federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, except for those stem-cell lines already in existence, and mandated voluntary informed consent without financial incentives on the part of the parents of human embryos.

Under the current NIH regulations, “voluntary and informed consent” on the part of the individuals donating their embryonic offspring becomes the overriding ethical principle, along with the specification that stem-cells derived from human embryos must have been created originally for “reproductive purposes” through in vitro fertilization (IVF) and not for the sake of scientific research. The NIH guidelines state that individuals donating their human embryos to research must give “voluntary written consent” without payment of any kind, and must be informed of the available options at the IVF facility.

Yes “ethical” murder of the innocent.