II 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1557 

To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for a program at the 

National Institutes of Health to conduct and support research in the 

derivation and use of human pluripotent stem cells by means that do 

not harm human embryos, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 29, 2005 

Mr. COBURN (for himself and Mr. DEMINT) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL

To amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for 

a program at the National Institutes of Health to conduct and support research in the derivation and use 

of human pluripotent stem cells by means that do not 

harm human embryos, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Respect for Life 

5 Pluripotent Stem Cell Act of 2005’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds as follows: 
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1 (1) Stem cells may be derived from various 

2 sources, including adult tissue, umbilical cord blood, 

3 and living human embryos. The use of cells from 

4 embryos has drawn great interest in the scientific 

5 community but also raises very serious ethical con6 cerns for many Americans, because as practiced 

7 today it requires the destruction of human embryos 

8 to obtain their cells. 

9 (2) The President’s Council on Bioethics in its 

10 May 2005 White Paper: ‘‘Alternative Sources of 

11 Pluripotent Stem Cells’’, describes several potential 

12 methods to derive stem cells like those now derived 

13 through the destruction of embryos, but which would 

14 not involve doing harm to embryos. Some methods 

15 propose to involve embryos in ways that do not harm 

16 them, while others propose to reprogram adult cells 

17 to produce cells with the capabilities of embryonic 

18 stem cells without producing or involving embryos at 

19 all. 

20 (3) Such proposals should be thoroughly tested 

21 in animal models before being applied to humans, to 

22 establish that they do not involve creating or harm23 ing human embryos. 

24 (4) Several scientific reports also suggest that 

25 some subclasses of adult stem cells (derived from 
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1 postnatal tissues, umbilical cord blood, and placenta) 

2 show a flexibility comparable to that of stem cells 

3 now derived through the destruction of embryos. 

4 (5) American scientists should be encouraged to 

5 pursue all ethical avenues of stem cell research and 

6 to explore morally uncontroversial alternatives to re7 search requiring the destruction of human embryos. 

8 SEC. 3. DERIVATION OF STEM CELLS WITHOUT HARMING 

9 EMBRYOS; RESEARCH THROUGH NATIONAL 

10 INSTITUTES OF HEALTH. 

11 Part B of title IV of the Public Health Service Act 

12 (42 U.S.C. 284) is amended by adding at the end the fol13 lowing: 

14 ‘‘SEC. 409J. BASIC AND APPLIED RESEARCH ON DERIVA15 TION AND USE OF PLURIPOTENT STEM 

16 CELLS WITHOUT HARMING EMBRYOS. 

17 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following 

18 definitions apply: 

19 ‘‘(1) HUMAN EMBRYO.—The term ‘human em20 bryo’ includes any organism, not protected as a 

21 human subject under 45 CFR 46 as of the date of 

22 the enactment of the Respect for Life Pluripotent 

23 Stem Cell Act of 2005, that is derived by fertiliza24 tion, parthenogenesis, cloning, or any other means 
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1 from one or more human gametes or human diploid 

2 cells. 

3 ‘‘(2) PLURIPOTENT STEM CELL.—The term 

4 ‘pluripotent stem cell’ means a cell that can in prin5 ciple be differentiated to produce all or almost all 

6 the cell types of the human body, and therefore has 

7 the same functional capacity as an embryonic stem 

8 cell, regardless of whether it has the same origin. 

9 ‘‘(b) IN GENERAL.—With respect to producing stem 

10 cell lines for important biomedical research, the Director 

11 of NIH shall, through the appropriate national research 

12 institutes, provide for the conduct and support of basic 

13 and applied research in isolating, deriving and using 

14 pluripotent stem cells without creating or harming human 

15 embryos. Such research may include— 

16 ‘‘(1) research in animals to develop and test 

17 techniques for deriving cells from embryos without 

18 doing harm to those embryos; 

19 ‘‘(2) research to develop and test techniques for 

20 producing human pluripotent stem cells without cre21 ating or making use of embryos; and 

22 ‘‘(3) research to isolate, develop, and test 

23 pluripotent stem cells from postnatal tissues, umbil24 ical cord blood, and placenta. 
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1 ‘‘(c) PROHIBITIONS REGARDING HARM TO HUMAN

2 EMBRYOS.—Research under subsection (b) may not in3 clude any research that— 

4 ‘‘(1) involves the use of human embryos; 

5 ‘‘(2) involves the use of stem cells not otherwise 

6 eligible for funding by the National Institutes of 

7 Health; 

8 ‘‘(3) involves the use of any stem cell to create 

9 or to attempt to create a human embryo; or 

10 ‘‘(4) poses a significant risk of creating a 

11 human embryo by any means. 

12 ‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—For the 

13 purpose of carrying out this section, there are authorized 

14 to be appropriated $15,000,000 in fiscal year 2006, and 

15 such sums as may be necessary for each of the fiscal years 

16 2007 through 2010. Such authorization is in addition to 

17 other authorizations of appropriations that are available 

18 for such purpose.’’.

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