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A microscopic view shows a colony of human embryonic stem cells (light blue) growing on fibroblasts (dark blue) - Source: Reuters -
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The US government released new rules on Tuesday governing
federally funded research on human embryonic stem cells, loosening
some ethical requirements that scientists said could have cost them
a decade of work.
The rules, which take effect on Wednesday, keep many existing
restrictions on the research. US federal funds may still not be
used to actually make the cells using human embryos - only to work
with the cells after someone else has made them.
But the National Institutes of Health, which issued the rules,
eased some of the measures in the initial guidelines drawn up in
March, including the so-called "informed consent" requirements
meant to ensure that people who donated embryos for research knew
exactly what they might be used for.
"We allow a case-by-case review," acting NIH director Dr. Raynard
Kington told reporters in a telephone briefing.
In March, President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on human
embryonic stem cell research that had been put in place by his
predecessor, former president George W Bush and asked the NIH to
draw up new guidelines.
Stem cell company stocks did not move much on news of the new
rules, in part because the changes mostly affect academic
researchers who rely on federal funding for their work.
The NIH guidelines take into account many of the arguments put
forward during nearly 10 years of debate over how best to use the
potential of human embryonic stem cells, which have the power to
give rise to all the cells and tissues in the body and which
supporters hope can transform medicine.
Opponents say it is wrong to destroy human embryos for any
reason.
"The administration's decision to dramatically expand the number of
stem cell lines derived from human embryos and create incentives
for the destruction of human life is a provocative step beyond what
the president proposed just months ago and yet another sign that he
has quickly retreated from his promise to be a president for all
Americans," House of Representatives Republican leader John Boehner
said in a statement.
However, over the years Congress reached a middle ground, with
many social conservatives such as Utah Republican Senator Orrin
Hatch supporting such research if it used embryos left over at
fertility clinics.
Broad public support
"The guidelines reflect the broad public support for
federal funding of research using human embryonic stem cells
created from such embryos based on wide and diverse debate on the
topic in Congress and elsewhere," the new rules say.
They limit such research to these in vitro fertilization or IVF
leftovers but also loosen restrictions on using human embryonic
stem cells made in other countries.
In April when the initial guidelines were published some
scientists said the "informed consent" rules on educating embryo
donors were so strict that they might force labs to discard
valuable stem cell batches, called lines.
"The draft guidelines that were released were so restrictive that
I feared the vast majority of lines would be excluded," Dr. George
Daley of Harvard University in Massachusetts said in a telephone
interview. He said the revised rules answer his
concerns.
"It is the most that the administration can offer under current
law," said Dr. John Gearhart, a stem cell expert at the University
of Pennsylvania. "There are many 'new' cell lines that have
exceptional properties and have been maintained under better
conditions that will meet the criteria of use."
The rules create in effect the first official federal oversight of
human embryonic stem cell research, the American Society for
Reproductive Medicine said.
Opponents of the research did not immediately respond to requests
for comment but the National Right-To-Life-Committee said in April
it feared the regulations were only a first step to loosening
restrictions on the research.
