Stem Cell Recommendations for the New Administration

By Andrew Plemmons Pratt | December 4th, 2008

A colony of undifferentiated embryonic stem cells.

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Rick Weiss outlines a framework for a new federal policy that supports funding human embryonic stem cell research over on the CAP website. He writes that within the first week of taking office, President Obama “should call upon the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health to devise a plan for dismantling the current, overly restrictive Bush administration policy on the funding of human embryonic stem cell research.”

Within 90 days, he argues, NIH and HHS should have regulations in place for federal support of research involving ethically derived hESCs with these restrictions:

• The cells must have been derived from embryos produced for reproductive purposes.
• Those embryos must have been deemed in excess of medical need, were no longer being considered for transfer to a womb, and were slated for destruction.
• The embryos were freely donated by both of the adults who contributed genetic material to create them, as evidenced by proper written informed consent.
• No financial inducements were offered to donors, and the donors expressed through an informed consent process their understanding that any resulting cell lines will be used for research and not for the development of therapeutic benefits for the donors.
• All federally funded research on human embryonic stem cells must be conducted under the review of a Stem Cell Research Oversight committee that adheres to the standards put forth in the guidelines of either the National Academies or the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

Read the full outline for the policy recommendation here.

read full article