U.S. Government | The Immortal Cell

ImmortalCell.com |

Immortal Cell - Internet | Video | Media Projects
An on-going series of video projects based primarily on the book by Michael D. West

U.S. Government
President's Council on Bioethics: http://bioethics.gov/ |
History
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin announced in 1998 that they had isolated and kept alive long-term cultures of the cells. After the Wisconsin scientists' announcement in 1998, the National Institutes of Health empaneled a group of experts to devise ethical guidelines for the use of stem cells in research. Their guidelines, issued at the end of the Clinton administration, called for awarding federal grants to scientists to study embryonic stem-cell colonies as long as the embryos were developed in a fertility treatment context, were not needed by the people whose eggs and sperm made them and were donated by the couple for research purposes. But when George Bush became president, he changed the rules, limiting federal money to research on stem-cell lines derived from embryos already destroyed by the date of his announcement, Aug. 9, 2001. Maine News Report 2006 |

U.S. Senate | http://senate.gov/ |

2006
Tom Coburn | US Senator OK : http://coburn.senate.gov/public/ |
Tom Harkin | US Senator Iowa : http://harkin.senate.gov/ |
580 Support Letters for HR 810
Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R. 810/S.471)
June 30, 2006
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on Thursday revived a bill to expand funding for embryonic stem cell research after conservatives who had blocked it withdrew their objections. "It's my intention, now that we've gotten over this first hurdle, that we will [vote on the bill] in the not-too-distant future," Frist said as he brought the three-bill package to the floor. Frist said the vote would occur before the Senate break in October. The announcement marked a major advance for a bill that had stalled in the Senate since the House passed it in May 2005. President Bush remains opposed to the legislation and has said he will veto it. The bill would permit the government to pay for human embryonic stem cell research, a science that carries promise in the hunt for cures to diseases that afflict millions of people. Social conservatives liken the research to abortion because the process of extracting stem cells from an embryo results in its death.
2005

Leading scientists have told us time and time again that stem cell research, including and especially embryonic stem cell research, holds great promise in uncovering the mysteries of human health and disease and in potentially developing diagnostic tests and therapeutic agents for a multitude of conditions including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and many, many others.
I am supportive of all forms of stem cell research that can be conducted in an ethical manner. This includes embryonic stem cell research conducted through the technology of somatic cell nuclear transfer.
Senators Specter and Harkin. They have held a comprehensive series of now sixteen hearings on stem cell research over the past seven years. It is their original legislation that forms the basis of Castle-DeGette bill, H.R. 810, that passed the House last month.
Orrin Hatch - H.R. 810 PROMOTES VITAL, ETHICAL RESEARCH |

U.S. House of Representatives | http://www.house.gov/ |

2006
Congressman Mike Castle | Delaware | HR810 Stem Cell Reserch Enhancement Act |
The measure would allow federally-funded research on stem cells created by in vitro fertilization embryos, that would otherwise be disposed of as "medical waste." The bill cleared the House of Representatives last May 2005. Castle hopes the research would help cure certain deadly diseases. Now a Senate Bill |
Office: DC 202 225-4165 Jenner Intern • Elizabeth Wenk / Asst. • Willmington DE: Kristy Huxhold / Scheduler
July 4, 2006
The Hill | Deal on stem cell vote caught many off-guard
Dave Weldon: http://weldon.house.gov/ |
Washington, Jun 30 2006 - U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL), M.D. introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to ban the harvesting of human fetuses for the purpose of experimental medical research. The measure, which is likely to be considered before the August recess, would make it a federal crime to create, acquire, or traffic in tissue derived from a human fetus created and grown specifically for tissue harvesting. "Growing a human fetus for the purpose of harvesting his or her body parts for experimental research is something right out of the most gruesome horror movie," said Weldon. "Unfortunately, it's also a real possibility unless Congress acts to prohibit it. This bill will ban fetal farming before its advocates begin such unimaginable horrors in the name of science." Weldon's move follows an announcement yesterday by Senate leadership to consider similar legislation as part of a three-part package on embryonic stem cell research.
Santorum-Weldon Bill
H.R. 810: Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005
Human embryonic stem cells
ISCCR: http://www.isscr.org/news/index.htm |

The White House | http://www.whitehouse.gov/ |

Prsident Bush
2001

Many people are finding that the more they know about stem cell research, the less certain they are about the right ethical and moral conclusions. My administration must decide whether to allow federal funds, your tax dollars, to be used for scientific research on stem cells derived from human embryos... However, most scientists, at least today, believe that research on embryonic stem cells offer the most promise because these cells have the potential to develop in all of the tissues in the body. Scientists further believe that rapid progress in this research will come only with federal funds. Federal dollars help attract the best and brightest scientists. They ensure new discoveries are widely shared at the largest number of research facilities and that the research is directed toward the greatest public good.
Stem Cell Research | August 9, 2001
2005

In the complex debate over embryonic stem cell research, we must remember that real human lives are involved -- both the lives of those with diseases that might find cures from this research, and the lives of the embryos that will be destroyed in the process. May 24, 2005 speech | PDF File | Fact Sheet |
President Signs "Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005"
On December 20, 2005, the President has signed into law: H.R. 2520, the "Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005", which creates a new Federal program to collect and store cord blood, and expands the current bone marrow registry program to also include cord blood.