WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's announcement Monday that he is overturning limits on federally funded embryonic stem cell research will also include a broad declaration that science, not political ideology, will guide his administration.

Obama plans to direct the National Institutes of Health to put safeguards in place so science is protected from political interference.

President George W. Bush had limited taxpayer money for stem cell research to a small number of stem cell lines that were created before Aug. 9, 2001. But scientists say hundreds of newer lines are healthier and better suited to creating treatments for diseases.

Bush and his supporters said they were defending human life because days-old embryos are destroyed for the stem cells. The embryos are typically from fertility-clinic leftovers otherwise destined to be thrown away.


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