The US president, George W Bush, has taken his first steps to prevent publicly funded embryonic stem cell research. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) was ordered to cancel last week's inaugural meeting of the Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Review group. The group has been set up to determine whether stem cell lines derived from human embryos comply with the ethical guidelines of the NIH.
Because embryo stem cell research projects cannot be funded by the NIH until approval of cell lines has been given by the panel, the cancellation of the meeting will indefinitely delay the federal funding of human embryo stem cell research in the US.
The panel was meant to have met on 25 April to review at least one cell line, derived by a team of Australian researchers led by Martin Pera and Alan Trounson, using private funds. This is the first application from scientists seeking federal funds for human embryo stem cell research.
A clause in the law prevents the NIH from funding research that would harm or destroy an embryo, but it was ruled in 1999 that because embryo stem cells are not actually embryos, the NIH could fund research on cells that were derived from privately funded or overseas research projects. This is currently under review by the Bush administration and is the reason given for the cancellation of the panel meeting. A spokesperson for the NIH said 'The Department of Health and Human Services told us in as much as they're conducting a review, it was premature for the review group to meet to assess compliance'.
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