Contact: Michelle Gress, Westchester Institute, 914-749-3928, mgress@westchesterinstitute.net

THORNWOOD, NY, Mar. 9 /Christian Newswire/ -- In response to President Obama's action today that lifts restrictions on federal funding of embryo destructive research, Fr. Thomas Berg, executive director of New York's Westchester Institute for Ethics & the Human Person and member of the ethics committee of the Empire State Stem Cell Board, criticized the move as unnecessary and culturally divisive: "There is a growing chorus of secular and scientific voices that are now recognizing the obvious: we really don't need to be destroying human embryos to get the kind of stem cells we need. IPS [induced pluripotent stem cell] research is doing that for us.

"There is an increasing public demand," he continued, "for scientists to drop the culturally divisive and ethically objectionable research in favor of research that everyone can get on board with. I wish the President would lead the charge in challenging scientists to do just that. Moreover, in the midst of this current economic crisis, it's a travesty to waste money on an immoral scientific endeavor that is already outpaced by scientifically superior, and ethically unproblematic advances."

The Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human person was founded in 1998 to renew, deepen, and promote the Western tradition of moral reflection by conducting interdisciplinary, natural law analysis of complex, contemporary moral issues yet unresolved among Judeo-Christian scholars.

More information: Useful links and additional background documents are available at www.westchesterinstitute.net. To speak with a representative from Westchester Institute contact Michelle Gress at mgress@westchesterinstitute.net.