Should The Government Fund Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Should the government fund embryonic stem cell research

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While several state legislatures have addressed measures that would limit or ban human embryonic stem cell research, the central policy focus at the federal level has been whether and how such research would receive federal funding. No one has a right to receive federal funding.

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The people, projects, and activities that receive federal taxpayer dollars do so as a matter of explicit policy decisions. In our democratic system, decisions about funding rightly take into account not only material costs and benefits but also moral judgments. Click Face the Embryo The policy debate over funding human embryonic stem cell research was not wholly unprecedented.

Wade decision [3] may have encouraged scientific interest in these possibilities.

The Stem Cell Debates

During the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. Bush, no federal funding supported such research, and attempts by Democratic-controlled Congresses to fund it were blocked although privately funded fetal-tissue-transplant experiments proceeded. The lifting of the moratorium opened the door for government funding of research on ex utero embryos created by IVF, although research on embryos in utero was still prohibited under federal regulations for the protection of human subjects. In a report published September 27,the panel recommended funding research on human embryos created either for fertility treatments or specifically for the purposes of research. The amendment — a rider on the annual appropriations bill for HHS, which funds the NIH — prohibited federal funding for research that involves the creation or destruction of human embryos.

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The original amendment forbade funding for: 1 the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes; [and] 2 research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death this web page than that allowed for research on fetuses in utero under 45 CFR This distinction would become central to the should the government fund embryonic stem cell research stem cell policies that followed. Later that year, on September 7,the National Bioethics Advisory Commission NBAC published a report recommending that federal funding be permitted for research on embryonic stem cell lines, as well as for the derivation of new stem cell lines from unused embryos.

This division — under which neither biomedical researchers at NIH nor scientists at universities and other research institutions who rely on federal support could participate in some aspects of this research — rests on the mistaken notion that derivation and use can be neatly separated without affecting the expansion of scientific knowledge…. Instead, recognizing the close connection in practical and ethical terms between derivation and use of the cells, it would be preferable to enact provisions that apply to funding by all federal agencies…. Under the guidelines, research on stem cell lines could be funded provided that their source embryos came from IVF undertaken for reproductive purposes, and that the embryos were voluntarily donated without financial inducement and free of influence or pressure from the researchers who were proposing to derive or make use of the embryonic stem cells.

The Bush Funding Policy Stem cell research funding was among the first major policy issues confronted by the new Bush administration in President Bush faced considerable political pressures on both sides of the issue. We decided that while spending federal dollars on such [ES cell] research might violate the spirit of the amendment, it would not violate the letter.

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In his memoirs, President Bush describes a defining moment of his deliberations, during a conversation with bioethicist Leon R. Kass on July 10, There was a lingering concern that this policy might nonetheless tacitly endorse the destruction of embryos. I must reaffirm the moral principle that had been violated — in this case, the dignity of human life. And I must make clear that federal funds would not be used in the further destruction of embryos.

So long as I did both, he said, the policy would pass the ethical test.

On November 7,the NIH officially established a registry listing the ES cell lines eligible for funding under the new policy. It also published a set of criteria for federal funding of research on ES cells. Azar also noted that the legislative history of the most recent reenactment of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment could be taken as a congressional endorsement of the Bush policy. A majority of the members of the Council supported a moratorium on cloning for biomedical research, and many among that majority would also have supported a ban.

So, for example, in late he signed into law the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act, which established a program to help increase the amount of bone marrow and cord blood available for transplantation.]

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Past studies have sought the views of scientists and the general public on the ethics of ESCR. Responses were gathered via semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. Concerns regarding the sanctity of life are directed at particular research protocols which interfere with religious notions of human ensoulment and early consciousness. Responses obtained indicate that respondents either discourage research that inflicts harm on living entities or allow ESCR with reservations. Research that is intended for the purpose of alleviating human suffering is seen as being ethical. Sivaraman, S. Most of the SCR work has involved hematopoietic stem cells such as bone marrow, peripheral blood, and cord blood, and propagation and expansion of human embryonic stem cell hESC lines Ministry of Health Malaysia The process of extracting stem cells from 4 to 5 day old embryos often results in embryos being destroyed de Wert and Mummery should the government fund embryonic stem cell research.