A Comparative Look at the U.S. and British Approaches to Stem Cell Research Symposium on Manufactured Humanity

65 Alb. L. Rev. 831 (2001-2002)
A Comparative Look at the U.S. and British Approaches to Stem Cell Research

handle is hein.journals/albany65 and id is 853 raw text is: COMMENT
A COMPARATIVE LOOK AT THE U.S AND BRITISH
APPROACHES TO STEM CELL RESEARCH
INTRODUCTION
On August 9, 2001, President George W. Bush announced that
federal funding of stem cell research would be limited to research
involving those cell lines that had been created prior to the date of
his announcement.1 His statement had a significant impact on stem
cell research in the United States and brought to mind a number of
questions. What are stem cells? Why is this research important?
What is the impact of President Bush's restrictions on stem cell
research in the United States? To answer the last question, it is
useful to examine other countries' and their legislative bodies'
approaches to stem cell research. Great Britain, in particular, has a
much less restrictive approach to public funding of stem cell
research and has even gone so far as to permit the cloning of
embryos for research.2 Many researchers feel that Great Britain's
approach is less complicated and leads to more useful results than
the United States approach dictated by President Bush.3
First, this comment provides a general overview of stem cell
research-the types of stem cells, the sources of stem cells, and an
analysis of these types and sources-and discusses the ethical
' President George W. Bush, Remarks on Stem Cell Research (Aug. 9, 2001), at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010809-2.html.; see also Carter M. Yang
et al., Stem-Cell Compromise: Bush Backs Limited Research, ABC News (Aug. 10, 2001)
(recounting the compromise President Bush struck over government funding of stem cell
research), at http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/ DailyNews/stem-cellsBushOlO8O9.
html.
2 See Ben Hirschler, Liberal Britain Keeps Edge in Stem-Cell Research, Science-Reuters
(Aug. 10, 2001) (acknowledging the advantage that the British science community will gain
over stem cell technology, since they enjoy far less stringent government regulation), at
http://cmbi.bjmu.edu.cn/news/0108/140.htm.
' See id. (noting that the United States will only fund further stem cell research that is
limited to the sixty existing stem cell lines that scientists have produced to date).

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