On August 9, 2001, at 9:00 p.m. EDT, the President announced his decision to allow Federal funds to be used for research on existing human embryonic stem cell lines as long as prior to his announcement (1) the derivation process (which commences with the removal of the inner cell mass from the blastocyst) had already been initiated and (2) the embryo from which the stem cell line was derived no longer had the possibility of development as a human being.
In addition, the President established the following criteria that must be met:
o The stem cells must have been derived from an embryo that was created for reproductive purposes; o The embryo was no longer needed for these purposes; o Informed consent must have been obtained for the donation of the embryo; o No financial inducements were provided for donation of the embryo.
So, at least in the US, there are no creations of embryos in the labs for harvesting purposes; I don't even think they're allowed to clone the cells after they've been removed, which would allow them to stop relying *on* embryos quite so much, but one step at a time.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-10-09 12:01 pm (UTC)From the National Institute of Health's (and yikes, sorry, the caps are theirs, not mine, on the document that I copied from...)
"NOTICE OF CRITERIA FOR FEDERAL FUNDING OF RESEARCH ON EXISTING HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS AND ESTABLISHMENT OF NIH HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELL REGISTRY" found at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-02-005.html
On August 9, 2001, at 9:00 p.m. EDT, the President announced his decision to allow Federal funds to be used for research on existing human embryonic stem cell lines as long as prior to his announcement (1) the derivation process (which commences with the removal of the inner cell mass from the blastocyst) had already been initiated and (2) the embryo from which the stem cell line was derived no longer had the possibility of development as a human being.
In addition, the President established the following criteria that must be met:
o The stem cells must have been derived from an embryo that was created for reproductive purposes;
o The embryo was no longer needed for these purposes;
o Informed consent must have been obtained for the donation of the embryo;
o No financial inducements were provided for donation of the embryo.
So, at least in the US, there are no creations of embryos in the labs for harvesting purposes; I don't even think they're allowed to clone the cells after they've been removed, which would allow them to stop relying *on* embryos quite so much, but one step at a time.