Thursday, August 9, 2001

After much deliberation and soul searching, President Bush decided and announced that Federal funding would be allowed for research on embryo-derived stem cells. However, funding would be restricted to work on embryonic stem cell lines that had either already been established or were in the process of being established (i.e. the stem cells had already been removed from the embryo as of August 9, 2001). NIH (mostly in the form of Lana Skirboll) had canvassed the world and found that 60 such lines were in existence, many in the private sector. The lines were growing robustly and were established according to the 4 points that President Bush mentioned in his speech, i.e. they had to be in vitro fertilized embryos that fulfilled the following criteria: 1) informed consent; 2) in excess of clinical need; 3) not done as a result of financial inducement; 4) embryos not established for the purpose of research. The public response was that the far right felt that the President had betrayed his pledge not to fund research on embryonic stem cells. Several scientists felt that he had not gone far enough since he restricted granting of Federal funds for further (after August 9) use of embryos to derive stem cells. I felt that Bush went as far as he could go politically since on the one hand, if he disallowed any work on embryonic stem cells, the far right would have been happy, but it would not be a sustainable position for the general public. On the other hand, if he allowed the unrestricted use of embryos that had been established for in vitro fertilization (even though this was what I hoped he would do), the conservatives would have damaged him politically. In other words, I believe that he went as far as he could go.