Many urged President Bush to agree with former President Clinton’s policy on stem cell research and that was; that the Congressional ban on funding embryo research would not be broken if the support was provided for only stem cell research and not for human cloning and no embryos would be destroyed to acquire these stem cells. President bush on the other hand decides to go against the former President’s vie

Senators Fienstein, Kennedy, and Hatch introduced a new bill to the Senate requiring all cloners of embryos to have their research approved by the scientific and ethical advisory board. The new bill would also outlaw transferring of cloned embryos to a women’s uterus and to transfer them to an artificial womb. If anyone broke these laws they would be subject to 1 million dollar fine and up to 10 years in prison. Both bills would outlaw reproductive cloning. The opponents of embryonic stem cell research think that it is wrong to create human life then destroy it to help others, when adult cells could help the same research. Feinstein, Kennedy and Hatch want to put strict limits on how old a cloned embryo would be before it is destroyed. Most countries have that limit set at 14 days, but the senators want the United States limit to be 12 days that way it is the toughest law. The reworded bill would require the General Accounting Office and the Institute of Medicine to review the piece of legislation. The new Bill would also have strict ethical and scientific reviews for all embryo cloning research and would set protection laws for women who donate eggs for research, it would be similar to the laws for aborted fetal tissue research.

The National Academy of Science requested additional stem cells be retrieved and that there should be additional federal funding for those extras that would be needed. The Senate did decide after September 11th to leave the Busch administration alone. The chief executive of advanced Cell Technology, Michael West announced that his company in Massachusetts had cloned the first human embryo, which started the opponents of stem cell research to move on the anti-cloning laws.

The debate continued over exactly how many stem cells were needed to perform the proper research. Some Democrats are even debating human safety with the stem cells that are being federally funded because they were nourished by a layer of “ feeder” cells from mice that are extremely primitive. Hillary Rodman-Clinton D-N.Y. questioned if the mix between human and animal cells would lead to contamination to the human cells, and if they could get more stem cells that it would be safer and a better way to conduct research that does not involve animals. Thompson argues that he did not believe that any of the stem cells were contaminated and the Food and Drug Administration approved the stem cells with the mice feeder layers. Republicans think that they could bring a stem cell research bill to the Senate floor and include an amendment banning human cloning and that there would be a good possibility that it would be passed. Sam Brownback R-Kan. is trying to pass a bill and get Democrats involved to ban human cloning. A similar bill was passed in the House of Representatives carried by Dave Weldon R-Fla..

The President’s decision was that he was against human cloning. He felt that the estimated 60 stem cells that are been researched privately should be federally funded because the embryos were already destroyed and the stem cells have the possibility of regenerating themselves indefinitely. He also supports aggressive federal funding for umbilical cord placenta, animal and adult stem cells. The government will spend $ 250 million on this type of research. Finally the President decided to name a President’s council to monitor stem cell research which will set guidelines and regulations, the council will consist of scientists, doctors, ethicists, lawyers, theologians and others, and would be chaired by Dr. Leon Kass.

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