Stem Cell
2007-Congress passed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act but was vetoed by President George bush again.
2007
2005-Congress passed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act that would allow federal funding for embryonic stem cell line for fertility treatment but the act was vetoed by President George Bush.
2001-George W. Bush prohibit federal fund for research on embryonic stem cell lines. The Dickey-Wicker Amendment made in 1996 only comprises the end of federal fund in human embryonic stem cell research and not embryonic stem cell line research. This means that scientist can use private fund to derive embryonic stem cell from embryos and later use federal fund for researching the embryonic stem cell lines. By including prohibit of using federal fund for human embryonic stem cell lines research, it fixed the flaw from the Dickey-Wicker Amendment.
1988- Human Fetal Tissue Transplantation Research Panel approves federal funding for embryo research but the approval was withheld by the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department of Health and Human Services withholds the approval because of the argument that embryonic research will lead to the increase in abortion.
1980- The Ethic Advisory Board expired and was never renewed. Without the Ethic Advisory Board and the de facto moratorium from 1974 still in effect, the federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research was ban through 1980s.
[42] President George Bush restricted federal fund for stem cell research
2001
[44] President Obama issued the executive order “Removing Barriers to Responsible Scientific Research Involving Human Stem Cells”
1979- The Ethic Advisory Board recommends federal funding for in vitro fertilization research to be funded by federal but the proposal was not accepted by the National Commission.
1975-The Ethics Advisory Board was established within the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research to review protocol of federal funding research that uses embryo protocol. As a result of the guideline from National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research and the protocol review from the Ethic Advisory Board, the Department of Health and Human Services lifts the moratorium on federal funding fetal tissue research.
1974- Congress puts a temporary moratorium on the use of federal fund for fetal tissue research that uses human fetuses and living embryos which includes researches on embryonic stem cell, in vitro fertilization (IVF), infertility, and prenatal diagnosis until the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research is established and set up a guideline.
1973-Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade legalized abortion and the case define that an embryo is equivalent to a life when it has the potential to be able to live outside of womb.
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1980
1990- Congress tempts to lift the moratorium but was vetoed by President George Bush.
2009
March- President Obama issues the executive order “Removing Barriers to Responsible Scientific Research Involving Human Stem Cells” to remove the limitation on human embryonic stem cell research and suggest National Institutes of Health to update and review the guideline.
May-The Law of Life Project's legal team propose that the new guideline support the destruction of human embryo.
July-The court case Sherley v. Sebelius is file by a group of scientist arguing that the National Institute of Health’s new guideline violates the Dickey-Wicker Amendment.
2000-National Institutes of Health guideline
The National Institutes of Health put out guide line for human embryonic stem cell research. It stated that embryonic stem cells research should be done only with private fund and need to be use for fertility treatment purposes. It also needs to be excess embryos from clinical use and with donor voluntary consent on donation to be use in embryonic stem cell research.
1995-Dickey-Wicker Amendment
The Dickey-Wicker Amendment prohibit the use of federal fund from the Department of Health and Human Services for human embryonic stem cell research or any research that involves the destruction of human embryos.
1995-Congress does not approve using federal fund for human embryonic research and prohibit the use of federal fund on research that involves the destruction of human embryo.
1993- The National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act repeal the requirement for Ethic Advisory Board to review protocol for approval.
At the same year, President Clinton order National Institute of Health Revitalization to lift the ban on federal funding human embryonic stem cell research
US stem Cell Policy timeline
[41] The pro-life and pro- choice debate from legalizing abortion continues on to stem cell research
Stem Cells in U.S.
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The image above shows thestates that provide funding for stem cell research
State Fund
While federal fund in stem cell research seems to gain the most public attention, state and private funds also takes a big part in funding stem cell researches. The six states, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and New York combined have funded more human embryonic stem cell researches than the federal fund. From 2005 to 2010, these six states have funded around 148 billion of dollars in stem cell research. These state funds can help support science that are not funded by federal government and help the economy of the state. Some of these states such as California has become one of the leading stem cell research in the world.
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These two tables are for comaprison of the state and federal funding in stem cell research. The graph on the left are the 10 states in the United States that have state fund for embryonic stem cell research and the amout the state goverment spent on embryonic stem cell research. One of the reason that more state funds are spent on embryonic stem cell research is because that many embryonic stem cell researches are not funded by federal fund. Also there are less federal fund spent on human embryonic research compare to any other type of stem cell research as shown in the graph at right.
(Citation 43-53)
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