Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Crucially, Bush's decision did not emerge in a vacuum. There has
been a long history of decision-making around the use of embryos in
research prior to the derivation of stem cells from human embryos
and the Bush administration's announcement that federal funding
for hESC research should be limited. Wertz (2002a) argues that this
history goes back to 1973, when a ban on federal funding of research
on foetuses 'in the context of abortion' was announced not long
after
Roe
v.
Wade
with bans on funding for research on embryos and
foetal tissue following later. It is thought that the main outcome of
these bans was to drive research into infertility into the private
sector, although basic research on foetal tissue derived from elective
abortion continued, albeit without much public attention until much
later (Wertz, 2002a).
In the late 1980s, the Human Fetal Tissue Transplantation
Research Panel was established by the NIH after an application for
research funding into the use of foetal neural tissue as a therapeutic
treatment for Parkinson's disease (Wertz, 2002b). Although the
panel voted to allow this kind of research, the moratorium on
funding was continued, with then President George Bush (Snr)
vetoing Congress's attempts to overturn the decision (Wertz, 2002b).
The moratorium was discontinued by President Bill Clinton in 1993
(Wertz, 2002b). More specifically, in 1994 the NIH Human Embryo
Research Panel produced a set of guidelines recommending that
funding be allowed for some forms of research using embryos, and
that embryos might even be created specifically for research purposes
(Wertz, 2002b). Yet Clinton was forced to reject this proposal due
to community outcry (Wertz, 2002b). Finally, in 1995, Congress
produced a ban on the use of federal funds for research on embryos
(Wertz, 2002b) via the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, a rider attached
to all appropriation bills restricting the use of public funding for
research on embryos that is still in place today.
In March 2009, President Barack Obama lifted the Bush
administration's restrictions on federal funding for hESC research
and ordered the NIH to establish a new set of guidelines for the
ethical conduct of research involving human embryonic stem cells
(Executive Order 13505). The one caveat in the Executive Order,
however, was that it must respect all existing laws and legislation.
