United States

Federal Regulations and Funding

Stem cell research is conducted with both embryonic and adult stem cells, and with both human and animal cells. Research with adult stem cells and non—human stem cells is relatively non—controversial: most of the disputes center around research with hESCs, which as the name suggests are derived from human embryos. Because creating a stem cell line from an embryo requires destruction of the embryo, some people object to the process on religious or other ethical grounds, arguing that destroying an embryo is the moral equivalent of killing a human being. This belief makes stem cell research a controversial topic in the United States (in a way which it is not in many Western European countries, for instance) and is the basis for the current prohibition on federal funding to create new stem cell lines or for research using newly created lines. Major organizations which oppose hESC research include the Catholic Church, the organization Do No Harm—The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics, and the National Right to Life Committee.

There is no federal law prohibiting the creation of new stem cell lines from embryos, and neither is there any federal law prohibiting the destruction of embryos. In fact, fertility clinics regularly create many more embryos than they expect to use (the Rand Institute estimated in 2001 that over 400,000 such embryos were stored in clinic freezers at that time), and these embryos are routinely destroyed when no longer needed. The reason stem cell research in the United States is limited, relative to other industrialized countries, is because the expense of scientific research has traditionally been borne by the federal government, and there is no other source of funding adequate to replace federal funding.

Opposition to stem cell research in the United States is often traced to opposition to abortion, and there is a historical connection between the two issues. After the Roe v. Wade decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 overturned most state laws banning abortion, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services) of the federal government imposed a moratorium on research with living embryos. The following year, Congress imposed a moratorium on federal funding for research using embryonic or fetal tissue. Both restrictions were motivated in part by the fear that the availability of legal abortion would lead to exploitation of aborted fetuses and embryos, or that the medical or economic value of fetal and embryonic tissue might induce some women to undergo abortion. As is the case with stem cell funding today, Congress did not ban research with fetal and embryonic tissue, but only the provision of federal funds for it. Studies involving embryonic or fetal tissue, which includes much infertility treatment and research, are most commonly funded by private companies.

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