Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: Is embryonic stem cell research legal?
In May 2005, the House of Representatives voted 238-194 to loosen the limitations on federally funded embryonic stem-cell research — by allowing government-funded research on surplus frozen embryos from in vitro fertilization clinics to be used for stem cell research with the permission of donors — despite Bush's promise to veto if passed. On July 29, 2005, Senate Majority Leader William H. Frist (R-TN), announced that he too favored loosening restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.[6] On July 18, 2006, the Senate passed three different bills concerning stem cell research. The Senate passed the first bill, 63-37, which would have made it legal for the Federal government to spend Federal money on embryonic stem cell research that uses embryos left over from in vitro fertilization procedures. On July 19, 2006 President Bush vetoed this bill. The second bill makes it illegal to create, grow, and abort fetuses for research purposes. The third bill would encourage research that would isolate pluripotent, i.e., embryonic-like, stem cells without the destruction of human embryos.
In 2010, Sherley was the named plaintiff in "Sherley v. Sebelius" against Kathleen Sebelius, director of HHS, and Francis Collins, director of the NIH, a case challenging federal (NIH) funding of embryonic stem cell research that resulted in a suspension of much of the NIH funded research on embryonic stem cells. He fought to ban the NIH from funding any research related to embryonic stem cells, and claimed that the decision of the federal government to pay for research on embryonic stem cells was "essentially robbing him of grant money by increasing the competition for funding". After three years of legal effort, the supreme court refused to overturn a lower judge's ruling against Sherley, allowing research to proceed.
In the past, it has been a necessity to research embryonic stem cells and in doing so destroy them for research to progress. As a result of the research done with both embryonic and adult stem cells, new techniques may make the necessity for embryonic cell research obsolete. Because many of the restrictions placed on stem cell research have been based on moral dilemmas surrounding the use of embryonic cells, there will likely be rapid advancement in the field as the techniques that created those issues are becoming less of a necessity. Many funding and research restrictions on embryonic cell research will not impact research on IPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells) allowing for a promising portion of the field of research to continue relatively unhindered by the ethical issues of embryonic research.
McCain was a member of The Republican Main Street Partnership and supported embryonic stem cell research. McCain had earlier opposed embryonic stem cell research and credits former First Lady Nancy Reagan, a prominent Republican supporter of such research, with changing his mind in 2001. He states that he believes that stem cell research, and indeed embryonic stem cell research, will continue whether or not the U.S. sanctions it, and so it would be the wisest course of action to support it to the extent that the United States will be able to regulate and monitor the use. In July 2008 he said "At the moment I support stem cell research [because of] the potential it has for curing some of the most terrible diseases that afflict mankind."
Pro-life supporters often claim that the use of adult stem cells from sources such as the umbilical cord blood has consistently produced more promising results than the use of embryonic stem cells. Furthermore, adult stem cell research may be able to make greater advances if less money and resources were channeled into embryonic stem cell research. Stem cell research is highly frowned upon in many ethnic and religious groups.
DeGette has consistently voted in favor of the use of embryonic stem cell research. DeGette says "we must pass common-sense embryonic stem cell research legislation, placing these regulations into statute and once and for all, ensuring this critical life-saving research can be conducted for years to come, unimpeded by political whims or naysayers." DeGette and Charlie Dent introduced the bipartisan Stem Cell Research Act of 2011, which would provide lasting support for stem cell research.
President Bush supported adult stem cell research and umbilical cord blood stem cell research. However, Bush opposed any new embryonic stem cell research, and had limited the federal funding of existing research. Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research was first approved under President Clinton on January 19, 1999, but no money was to be spent until the guidelines were published. The guidelines were released under Clinton on August 23, 2000. They allowed use of unused frozen embryos. On August 9, 2001, before any funding was granted under these guidelines, Bush announced modifications to the guidelines to allow use of only existing stem cell lines. While Bush claimed that more than 60 embryonic stem cell lines already existed from privately funded research, scientists in 2003 said there were only 11 usable lines, and in 2005 that all lines approved for Federal funding are contaminated and unusable. Adult stem cell funding was not restricted and was supported by President Bush as a more viable means of research.
In 2005, the United States National Academies released its Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research. These Guidelines were prepared to enhance the integrity of human embryonic stem cell research in the public's perception and in actuality by encouraging responsible practices in the conduct of that research. The National Academies has subsequently named the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee to keep the Guidelines up-to-date.[26]
The National Academies called for the establishment of Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight (ESCRO) Committees in its 2005 "Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research" to manage the ethical and legal concerns in human embryonic stem cell research. Because of the complexity and novelty of many of the issues involved in that research, the Guidelines committee believes that all research institutions engaged in human embryonic stem cell research should create and maintain these committees at the local level.
There is widespread controversy over the use of human embryonic stem cells. This controversy primarily targets the techniques used to derive new embryonic stem cell lines, which often requires the destruction of the blastocyst. Opposition to the use of human embryonic stem cells in research is often based on philosophical, moral, or religious objections. There is other stem cell research that does not involve the destruction of a human embryo, and such research involves adult stem cells, amniotic stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells.
By executive order on March 9, 2009, President Barack Obama removed certain restrictions on federal funding for research involving new lines of human embryonic stem cells.[9] Prior to President Obama's executive order, federal funding was limited to non-embryonic stem cell research and embryonic stem cell research based upon embryonic stem cell lines in existence prior to August 9, 2001. Federal funding originating from current appropriations to the Department of Health and Human Services (including the National Institutes of Health) under the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, remains prohibited under the Dickey–Wicker Amendment for (1) the creation of a human embryo for research purposes; or (2) research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that allowed for research on fetuses in utero.
The composition of ESCRO committees was specified to include representatives of the public and people with expertise in developmental biology, stem cell research, molecular biology, assisted reproduction, and ethical and legal issues in human embryonic stem cell research.
1981: Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) were independently first derived from mouse embryos by two groups. Martin Evans and Matthew Kaufman from the Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge published first in July, revealing a new technique for culturing the mouse embryos in the uterus to allow for an increase in cell number, allowing for the derivation of ES cells from these embryos.[43] Gail R. Martin, from the Department of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, published her paper in December and coined the term “Embryonic Stem Cell”.[44] She showed that embryos could be cultured in vitro and that ES cells could be derived from these embryos. 1989: Mario R. Cappechi, Martin J. Evans, and Oliver Smithies publish their research which details their isolation and genetic modifications of embryonic stem cells, creating the first "knockout mice".[45] In creating knockout mice, this publication provided scientists with an entirely new way to study disease. 1998: A paper titled "Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Derived From Human Blastocysts" is published by a team from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The researchers behind this study not only create the first embryonic stem cells, but recognize their pluripotency, as well as their capacity for self-renewal. The abstract of the paper notes the significance of the discovery with regards to the fields of developmental biology and drug discovery.[46] 2001: President George W. Bush allows federal funding to support research on roughly 60—at this time, already existing—lines of embryonic stem cells. Seeing as the limited lines that Bush allowed research on had already been established, this law supported embryonic stem cell research without raising any ethical questions that could arise with the creation of new lines under federal budget.[47] 2006: Japanese scientists Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Takashi publish a paper describing the induction of pluripotent stem cells from cultures of adult mouse fibroblasts. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are a huge discovery, as they are seemingly identical to embryonic stem cells and could be used without sparking the same moral controversy.[48] January, 2009: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provides approval for Geron Corporation's phase I trial of their human embryonic stem cell-derived treatment for spinal cord injuries. The announcement was met with excitement from the scientific community, but also with wariness from stem cell opposers. The treatment cells were, however, derived from the cell lines approved under George W. Bush's ESC policy.[49] March, 2009: Executive Order 13505 is signed by President Barack Obama, removing the restrictions put in place on federal funding for human stem cells by the previous presidential administration. This would allow the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide funding for hESC research. The document also states that the NIH must provide revised federal funding guidelines within 120 days of the order's signing.[50]
Embryoid body Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committees Fetal tissue implant Stem cell controversy Induced stem cells
1993 - As per the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act, Congress and President Bill Clinton give the NIH direct authority to fund human embryo research for the first time.[28] 1995 - The U.S. Congress passes an appropriations bill attached to which is a rider, the Dickey–Wicker Amendment which prohibited federally appropriated funds to be used for research where human embryos would be either created or destroyed. President Clinton signs the bill into law. This predates the creation of the first human embryonic stem cell lines. 1999 - After the creation of the first human embryonic stem cell lines in 1998 by James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin, Harriet Rabb, the top lawyer at the Department of Health and Human Services, releases a legal opinion that would set the course for Clinton Administration policy. Federal funds, obviously, could not be used to derive stem cell lines (because derivation involves embryo destruction). However, she concludes that because human embryonic stem cells "are not a human embryo within the statutory definition," the Dickey-Wicker Amendment does not apply to them. The NIH was therefore free to give federal funding to experiments involving the cells themselves. President Clinton strongly endorses the new guidelines, noting that human embryonic stem cell research promised "potentially staggering benefits." And with the guidelines in place, the NIH begins accepting grant proposals from scientists.[28] 2001–2006 - On August 9, 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush signs an executive order which restricts federally funded stem cell research on embryonic stem cells to the already derived cell lines. He supports federal funding for embryonic stem cell research on the already existing lines of approximately $100 million, $250 million for research on adult and animal stem cells, and creates the President's Council on Bioethics led by Dr. Leon Kass of the University of Chicago to "monitor stem cell research, to recommend appropriate guidelines and regulations, and to consider all of the medical and ethical ramifications of biomedical innovation." 2 November 2004 - California voters approve Proposition 71, which provides $3 billion in state funds over ten years to human embryonic stem cell research. 5 May 2006 - Senator Rick Santorum introduces bill number S. 2754, or the Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act, into the U.S. Senate. 18 July 2006 - The U.S. Senate passes the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act H.R. 810 and votes down Senator Santorum's S. 2754. 19 July 2006 - President George W. Bush vetoes House Resolution 810 Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, a bill that would have reversed the Dickey–Wicker Amendment which made it illegal for federal money to be used for research where stem cells are derived from the destruction of an embryo. 7 November 2006 - The people of the U.S. state of Missouri passed Amendment 2, which allows usage of any stem cell research and therapy allowed under federal law, but prohibits human reproductive cloning.[29] 16 February 2007 – The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine became the biggest financial backer of human embryonic stem cell research in the United States when they awarded nearly $45 million in research grants.[30] 4 November 2008 - The people of the U.S. state of Michigan passed Proposal 08-2, allowing Michigan researchers to make embryonic stem cell cultures from excess embryos donated from fertility treatments.[31] 23 January 2009 - The United States Food and Drug Administration approves clinical trials for human embryonic stem cell therapy.[32] 9 March 2009 - President Barack Obama signs an executive order reversing federal opposition to embryonic Stem Cell research.[33] August 2010 - Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a temporary injunction blocking the federal government from implementing the current NIH guidelines "...ruling that experiments with such cells fall under an "unambiguous" 1996 law by Congress that prohibits federal funding of research that destroys human embryos." This new injunction would not block new funding but it would also interfere with the research allowed under the Bush administration[34] April 2011 - See Dickey-Wicker Amendment, "In the 2-1 opinion of April 29, 2011, the appeals panel said that the Dickey-Wicker Amendment was "ambiguous" and that the National Institutes of Health had "reasonably concluded" that although federal funds could not be used to directly destroy an embryo, the amendment does not prohibit funding a research project using embryonic stem cells. This is an important distinction under the law, because for federal funds to be used directly to support the destruction of embryos."
The debate about the use of embryonic stem cells for research has been loud, acrimonious, and highly politicized with the result that embryonic stem cells were effectively banned for research uses in the United States. To solve the problem of limited embryonic stem cell availability, Turek and his colleagues invented a process by which the early germline stem cells from the normal adult testis, called spermatogonia, can be coaxed into becoming true, embryonic-like stem cells when placed in an appropriate culture environment. This finding has been independently confirmed by other research groups in the world and opens up the possibility of making embryonic stem cells for regenerative, cell-based therapy for men in the future without the need for embryos and all of the political and ethical issues that the use of human embryos engender.
Lemischka held or had patents pending for the following:
Lemischka's interests included defining the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control cell fate decisions in embryonic stem cells. Research into mouse embryonic stem cells was aggressively studied in the embryonic stem cells of humans.
On July 24, 2009, the first publication of a successful breakthrough in Stem cell research was released, where Chinese researchers from the Shanghai Stem Cell Institute, led by Professor Fanyi Zeng, successfully reprogrammed adult stem cells to be able to differentiate into any body cell, as in the case with standard embryonic stem cells, the cells in question known as "induced pluripotent stem cells" (IPS cells). The IPS cells were obtained by genetically reprogramming the skin cells of mice to acts like embryonic stem cells, which then were able to differentiate into all forms of body tissue. The researchers have managed to use the IPS cells to create every type of cell in a mouse, creating entire mouse pups using the technique. This is the first time the technique has been used to make an entire mouse.
After joining the Senate in 2002, Talent supported federal legislation that would ban embryonic stem cell research or federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. This included cosponsoring a bill (S.658) sponsored by Senator Sam Brownback, which would ban all forms of human cloning including embryonic therapeutic cloning techniques that are seen as crucial to stem cell research. This law was unnecessary because President Bill Clinton outlawed human cloning in 1998.
Hescheler has been working with embryonic stem cells ever since the late 1980s. Beginning with studies on cellular signal transduction, and starting with works on signalling pathways in different cells (g-protein phosphorylation, electrophysiology of channels) he focussed on embryonic stem cells and has since defined many important basic aspects of both fundamental research and clinical applications. He was the first scientist worldwide to perform electrophysiological and functional experiments on stem cells and differentiated phenotypes thereof. He achieved a first functional characterization of cardiomyocytes developed from embryonic stem cells which is an important prerequisite for their subsequent use in regenerative medicine. He thus pioneered the establishment of stem cell research for application in transplantation medicine. In 2002, he was among the first scientists in Germany to obtain permission to work with human embryonic stem cells. In his current position, as Chairman and Director to the Institute for Neurophysiology at the University of Cologne, his research areas include work on embryonic and adult stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells and germline pluripotent stem cells. Among progressing the use of stem cells for translational purposes, aiming at tapping the potential of stem cell biology towards clinical application, Hescheler actively promotes the vision of EPAA through innovative alternative testing strategies, applying stem cells towards toxicity testing. Apart from the rationale of promoting 3R principles it is his goal that coordinating a multidisciplinary research effort undertaken by various projects and consortia led by Hescheler will generate pathway- and evidence-based understanding of long-term toxic effects, thus moving toxicology from a rather descriptive science towards a more mechanistic-driven predictive one. 
Hescheler has been appointed coordinator of various European Consortia such as FunGenES, CRYSTAL, and more recently ESNATS and DETECTIVE. He is also coordinator of the BMBF consortium “iPS and adult bone marrow cells for cardiac repair”. In 2004 he founded and since chaired the German Society of Stem Cell Research (GSZ). He is an active member of the Scientific Panel of the AXLR8 Consortium and a member of steering committee of Stem Cell Network North Rhine Westphalia.
The information presented here covers the legal implications of embryonic stem cells (ES), rather than induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The laws surrounding the two differ because while both have similar capacities in differentiation, their modes of derivation are not. While embryonic stem cells are taken from embryoblasts, induced pluripotent stem cells are undifferentiated from somatic adult cells.
In 2006, Missourians voted on a constitutional amendment to fund and legalize embryonic stem cell research in the state; it failed in Franklin County with 56.13 percent voting against the measure. The initiative narrowly passed the state with 51 percent of support from voters as Missouri became one of the first states in the nation to approve embryonic stem cell research.
Pell supports research on the therapeutic potential of adult stem cells but opposes embryonic stem cell research on the basis that the church cannot support anything which involves "the destruction of human life at any stage after conception". Under Pell, the Sydney archdiocese has provided funding for adult stem cell research but has actively opposed moves by the Parliament of New South Wales to liberalise laws pertaining to use of embryonic stem cells.
Türkşen's research has been published in numerous research journals, including the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Molecular Biotechnology, and Gene Expression Patterns. Dr. Türkşen is also the editor of numerous stem cell books, including three recent volumes in the book series Methods in Molecular Biology: "Embryonic Stem Cell Protocols Volume I: Isolation And Characterization", "Embryonic Stem Cell Protocols Volume II: Differentiation Models", and "Human Embryonic Stem Cell Protocols".
Jürgen Karl-Josef Hescheler (born 2 May 1959) is a German physician and stem cell researcher. He is director to the Institute for Neurophysiology and a university professor at the University of Cologne. Prof. Hescheler is one of the most eminent and the most productive stem cell researchers worldwide, averaging more than 1000 citations of his publications per year. Hescheler has been working with embryonic stem cells since the late 80’s. He became the first researcher to accomplish an electrophysiological characterisation of stem cells and was also among the first scientists in Germany obtaining permission to do research on human embryonic stem cells. Furthermore, he is founder and chairman to the German Society for Stem Cell Research (GSZ).