These embryonic stem cells are generating huge excitement because they could lead to new therapies for Alzheimer's and other devastating diseases. But the use of them has raised troubling ethical questions, and is generating opposition from anti-abortion forces and some members of Congress. The National Bioethics Advisory Commission met this week to put final touches on recommendations that would allow women who have leftover embryos after fertility treatment to donate those embryos to taxpayer-funded scientists, who would remove the stem cells for research.
Federal law prohibits taxpayer-funded research involving human embryos.
So the commission's draft recommendations urged a change to that law, citing the great promise of the research. That's further than the National Institutes of Health had proposed going. In a statement Wednesday, the White House appeared to endorse NIH's more cautious proposal instead of the ethics committee's bolder recommendation. Varmus has said that the government doesn't need to finance the culling of stem cells from additional embryos because, he contends, the lab-grown supplies are sufficient for the necessary research. The White House ultimately agreed.