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Stem Cell Research


            On August 9, 2001, President George W. Bush finally made a decision on the most recent.
             controversial issue of federal funding for stem-cell research. In a brief televised address, he told .
             the nation that he would support very limited research on embryonic stem cells. Scientists would .
             be able to use an estimated $250 million of federal funds to continue their research, but only .
             through the use of existing lines of stem cells (estimated between a quantity of twelve and sixty) .
             obtained from embryos that had already been destroyed. The President cited the "prospect of .
             saving and improving life at all its stages" and encouraged scientists to consider using adults, .
             animals and placentas for stem cell sources. His decision was predictable. Through the support .
             of limited research, he managed not to take sides, positioning himself in the middle of this heated .
             debate. However, it did not put an end to the research altogether; private research on embryonic .
             stem cells may continue in the U.S. and abroad, as it has for years, through private, instead of .
             federal funding.
             What makes stem cell research so unique is that it is a relatively new technology in .
             today's modern world of science. The possibility for stem cell research was realized in .
             November of 1998, when scientists James Thomson and John Gearhart reported that they had .
             successfully isolated and cultured human embryonic stem cells, cells from which the hundreds of .
             tissues in the human body originate. The process from embryo to stem cell starts when an egg is .
             fertilized or cloned to form an embryo, which then divides. In the time from day 1 to day 5, the .
             embryo divides repeatedly and becomes a spherical-shaped blastocyst. By day 5 to day 7, the .
             embryonic stem cells are visible and capable of developing into any tissue in the human body. .
             Afterward, a stem cell line is formed, as the cells are removed and put into a Petri dish to grow .


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