After much speculation about its contents, the US National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) has finally published its recommendations on stem cell research and public funding. In line with expectations, the Commission has recommended that federal law be changed to allow public funding for research using human embryos.
Since the possibility of using human stem cells in the treatment of disease came to a step closer to reality in December 1998, debate has raged about the ban on federal funding for embryo research. Whilst some have tried to distinguish between stem cells and embryos in order to argue that the ban does not cover stem cell work, the NBAC took the decision to go back to first principles.
The report, entitled 'Ethical issues in human stem cell research', suggests that the federal ban 'conflicts with several of the ethical goals of medicine... especially healing'. A President's statement in response to the report was non-committal, but the White House had already suggested that there are no plans to attempt to reverse the federal ban on human embryo research.
Sources and References
-
Board urges funding of embryo research
-
Ethical issues in human stem cell research
-
Panel supports federal funding for stem cell research
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.