Following President George W. Bush’s decision in 2001 to limit the range of stem cell research that could be funded by the federal government, legislators from both parties offered a number of bills designed either to confirm and/or extend the president’s action or override his action by adopting laws that are more liberal in funding permitted for stem cell research. One of the most successful efforts was House bill 810 (H.R. 810), offered by representatives Mike Castle (R-Del.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and cosponsored by more than 150 other members of the House of Representatives.
H.R. 810 was introduced by Representative Castle on February 16, 2005. A comparable bill, S. 471, was also introduced into the U.S. Senate by senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). The House bill was reported out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee favorably and was passed by the House on a vote of 238-194 on May 24, 2005. S. 471 was passed by the Senate on a vote of 63-37 on July 18, 2006, but vetoed by President Bush on July 19. The House of Representatives was unable to override the veto.
Both bills took the form most commonly favored by supporters of stem cell research, permitting the funding of such research by the federal government, provided certain conditions are met. Those conditions are that the embryos to be used in research must come from the supply of surplus embryos supplied by in vitro fertilization clinics, but only if donors give their express, informed consent, and that donors not be paid for the embryos. No provision is made for the support of research on embryos that have been specifically produced for experimental use. To make the House’s position clear, the bill contains an explicit indication that the surplus embryos can be used “regardless of the date on which the stem cells were derived from a human embryo.” This explicit statement presumably was intended to contrast with President Bush’s limitation on the use of only those embryos in existence prior to his August 9, 2001, announcement.
