During his campaign for the presidency leading up to the 2000 election, George W. Bush indicated that he was opposed to any form of stem cell research in which human embryos were created and then destroyed for the production of stem cells. Shortly after he took office in January 2001, Bush put a hold on a government program established to accept and review grant proposals for embryonic stem cell research until his own administration could review the state of affairs in the field. The review committee issued its report on July 13, 2001, recommending that the government support both embryonic and adult stem cell research. Only a month later, Bush made a televised speech from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, to announce his policy on stem cell research.
In that speech, Bush acknowledged the potential value of using embryonic stem cell in research for the cure of a number of disabling diseases and disorders. He also reviewed the ethical issues involved in conducting such research. One of the most powerful factors in the decision he eventually made, Bush said, was his belief that embryos are living human beings and should not be killed for any reason, including possible medical benefits that might arise from stem cell research.
His decision on this contentious issue was that the U.S. government under his administration would be allowed to fund research on stem cell lines that were already in existence, in most cases the “left-over” embryos produced for the purpose of in vitro fertilization, but that funding would not be permitted for the purpose of creating new embryos for research. Bush estimated that a total of 60 stem cell lines—later increased to 78 stem cell lines—met his criterion and were eligible for funding support. The actual number of embryonic lines in good enough condition for research has been something of a matter of debate ever since. In any case, recalling science fiction novelist Aldous Huxley’s description of baby “hatcheries” in his novel Brave New World, Bush rejected the possibility of allowing the federal funding of any new stem cell lines. In conclusion, he announced the creation of a new President’s Bioethical Advisory Commission “to recommend appropriate guidelines and regulations, and to consider all of the medical and ethical ramifications of biomedical innovation.”
The president’s decision on the funding of stem cell research turned out to satisfy only a relatively small fraction of the general public. Many of his supporters were disappointed that he had decided to permit any embryonic stem cell research, arguing that to do so was to make the government complicit in the deaths of the embryos. His detractors bemoaned the limited range of research his policy was to permit and warned that the nation would rapidly fall behind other countries in this important field of scientific research. Over the ensuing years, both sides worked to drive U.S. policy in one direction or another, proposing legislation that would ban all forms of embryonic research or that would permit all forms of therapeutic embryonic stem cell research, if not embryonic research for the purpose of human cloning.
