CQ Today: Donors' Consent Will Be Required for Scientists to Use Stem Cells
Donors' Consent Will Be Required for Scientists to Use Stem Cells
Friday, April 17, 2009
By: Alex Wayne
The government will require scientists workingwith embryonic stem cells to show proof that parents consented to theuse of their embryos for research and were not paid for donating thetissue in order to win funding from the National Institutes of Health,under draft guidelines released Friday.
Donors' Consent Will Be Required for Scientists to Use Stem Cells
Friday, April 17, 2009
By: Alex Wayne
The government will require scientists workingwith embryonic stem cells to show proof that parents consented to theuse of their embryos for research and were not paid for donating thetissue in order to win funding from the National Institutes of Health,under draft guidelines released Friday.
NIH also will notbe able to fund the actual process of deriving stem cells from embryos,according to the guidelines, because the government is forbidden fromsupporting research using human embryos under a provision of the fiscal2009 spending bills. The agency said it also will not fund researchwith stem cells created through cloning, or research that involvescombining stem cells with cells from other animals or breeding hybridanimals created with stem cells.
Funding will be limited toresearch using stem cells derived from embryos discarded byfertilization clinics, and only in cases where parents provide writtenapproval for the use of the embryos in research. Clinics now dispose ofthousands of embryos each year that are byproducts of fertilizationprocedures and are not wanted by their parents.
The newguidelines are intended to govern work by scientists who seek NIHfunding for their research in the wake of an executive order thatPresident Obama issued March 9 that lifted Bush-era restrictions onembryonic stem cell research. President George W. Bush's restrictionshad limited federal funding to research that used embryonic stem cellscreated before Aug. 9, 2001. Scientists have long complained thatBush's restrictions crippled the research, which advocates say couldeventually lead to cures for myriad diseases and conditions, includingcancer, spinal cord injuries and diabetes.
Bush twicevetoed legislation that would have eased his limitations. He said hispolicy was intended to strike a compromise between advocates of theresearch and religious conservatives who oppose it because it entailsthe destruction of embryos, a process they liken to abortion.
The sponsors of the legislation Bush vetoed, Reps. Diana DeGette,D-Colo., and Michael N. Castle, R-Del., applauded the guidelines Fridaybut said they were planning to introduce legislation that would codifyethical restrictions on research using human tissue, including stemcells.
"Today's draft NIH guidelines are the first step towards an overarching, federal ethical framework," DeGette said.
The National Right to Life Committee, which opposes embryonic stem cellresearch because embryos are destroyed in order to derive stem cells,condemned the NIH guidelines and alleged that they are part of a"bait-and-switch" by Democrats who want to fund research using humanstem cells created by other methods, including cloning. TheDeGette-Castle legislation would be at the center of the scheme, thecommittee charged.
"We believe that today's action may bepart of a ‘bait-and-switch' strategy, under which Democratic leaders inCongress will suddenly bring up new legislation that they will claimcodifies today's NIH action, but which will in fact authorize furtherexpansions involving the deliberate creation of human embryos for usein research, by human cloning and other methods," the committee said ina statement.
A spokesman for DeGette, Kristofer Eisenla,did not refute the committee's suggestion. "Details of the legislationare still being discussed," he said.
NIH is acceptingcomments on the guidelines for 30 days; they are expected to be revisedbefore becoming final some time after that, a spokesman for the agencysaid. NIH will not fund embryonic stem cell research beyond what isallowed under Bush's restrictions until the guidelines are final.
"After many years under a stifled policy, we are on our way topromoting increased federal support for embryonic stem cell research,"Castle said.