Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 26 June 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5935, pp. 1648 - 1649
DOI: 10.1126/science.1176253
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Policy Forum

Research Ethics:

The NIH Draft Guidelines on Human Stem Cell Research

Mary A. Majumder and Cynthia B. Cohen2

With new draft guidelines to govern federal funding of human stem cell research, including human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have again taken on one of the most contentious endeavors of the day (1). There are positive aspects of the guidelines (2), but concern is growing that prior approvals of many widely used cell lines may not be in accord with specific wording requirements in the draft guidelines; such cell lines would need to be "grandfathered in" if research is to continue unimpeded (3). There are also several surprising omissions, surprising because they come in areas that are thoroughly addressed in the guidelines of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences (NAS) (4–6), which have become the gold standard for the conduct of stem cell research in the United States. Further, there has been little comment on the kind of initiative that would support future policy development.

1 Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
2 Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA.

* Author for correspondence. E-mail: majumder{at}bcm.edu

Read the Full Text

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)