Federal funding may *only* be used with surplus fertility clinic embryos:
April 18, 2009
Some Restrictions Lifted on Stem Cell Research
By GARDINER HARRIS
nytimes.com
WASHINGTON — The Obama Administration announced Friday that it planned to lift some — but not all — of the financing restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research in place during the Bush administration, a move that will please many but not all scientists.
The proposed guideline, which the administration plans to finalize by July 7, would allow research only on stem cells derived from surplus embryos at fertility clinics. Federal financing could still not be used to support the creation of embryos solely for the purposes of research or embryos created by therapeutic cloning.
Such restrictions, some scientists believe, could limit research into the creation of genetically matched organs for transplantation. And in an odd twist, the guideline’s requirements that donors be told what might happen to their embryos during research may make ineligible for future federal financing some of the older stem cell lines that President Bush had approved.
“This is an important advance in policy that allows for a huge increase in the funding of stem cell lines,” Dr. Raynard S. Kington, acting director of the National Institutes of Health, said in a briefing with reporters. “We think it will be a huge boost for the science in this area.”
Sitting on more than $10 billion in stimulus money, health institute officials have been urging scientists for more than a month to submit research proposals using stem cell lines well beyond those approved by President Bush. The N.I.H. has already approved 20 such proposals for financing, although the projects have been delayed until the stem cell guideline is finalized.
In fiscal year 2008, the health institutes financed 260 research projects, at a total cost of $88 million, that involved stem cell lines approved by President Bush.
“In a relatively short period of time, we’re likely to greatly increase the number of stem cell lines eligible for federal funding,” Dr. Kington said. “Ultimately, this will have a significant impact on human health and disease.”
The new guideline will be published next week in the Federal Register, and the health institutes will then accept comments about the new rules for 30 days. But even after the administration finalizes the guidelines, Dr. Kington said, the rules will be reviewed periodically and could be changed.
“We have proposed guidelines that we think are appropriate for where we are now,” Dr. Kington said. “There is broad support for this.”
Dr. Kington noted that Congress twice passed legislation that would allow federal financing for stem cells derived from surplus embryos at fertility clinics — the policy the Obama administration is proposing. President Bush vetoed both bills.
But many scientists believe that the development of matched organs for transplantation will be possible only with the use of therapeutic cloning or somatic cell nuclear transfer — a process by which the genetic material from a patient is placed in the nucleus of an egg to ensure embryonic stem cells that are an identical genetic match.
But Dr. Kington noted that this cell transfer process had never been successfully completed in human cells. And other scientists have suggested that if scientists create 1,000 or more genetically distinct stem cell lines, organs could be grown that would be a close enough match genetically to avoid rejection by patients’ immune systems.
The new rules say that only embryos created for reproductive procedures are eligible; that donors must be told the options for the use of embryos; that whatever a donor decides to do with the embryos should not affect the quality of the care provided to them; and that the doctor who provides care and the researcher who uses the embryo should, whenever practicable, not be the same person.
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