Human embryonic stem cell research has the potential to alleviate and perhaps even cure many debilitating conditions such as juvenile diabetes, heart disease, Parkinsons disease, Alzheimers disease, severe burns and spinal cord injuries. Many of these diseases are not currently susceptible to definitive or curative medical treatment. In addition, embryonic stem cell research aids scientists in understanding complex developmental processes so that we can better understand what goes wrong in birth defects and cancer. This research is so powerful because, when taken from very early embryos, stem cells can give rise to many different types of cells, including nerve cells, muscle cells, blood cells and others. Adult stem cells do not have the full developmental potential that embryonic stem cells have. Therefore, research on adult stem cells cannot adequately substitute for research on embryonic stem cells.

The Bush administration allows federally funded research only on stem cell lines that were created prior to August 9, 2001. When President Bush announced this policy, he claimed that it would allow federally funded research on more than sixty existing stem cell lines, and his Secretary of Health and Human Services assured us that all these lines were robust and viable for research . This was not true: when the Bush policy was announced only a handful of lines were ready to be used in research, and even today, over two years later, only twelve of those lines are available. Restricting federally funded research to those twelve lines is wrong because it slows scientific progress. To discover how stem cells can be used to cure diseases, scientists need to work with more than the twelve lines available to them under the Bush policy. Every day that scientists spend trying to figure out how to do research within the constraints that the Bush administration has imposed on them costs lives, and causes needless suffering to patients who might be cured by stem cell therapies. In addition, it encourages stem cell researchers to move from the U.S to other countries, like the United Kingdom, where these restrictions do not exist. This diminishes our nation's competence and leadership position in biomedical research. Finally, all the stem cell lines on which federally funded research can be conducted under the Bush policy were grown on layers of mouse cells. This process involves the risk that those cell lines might be contaminated by material from those mouse cells, including infectious agents. Since 2001, researchers have discovered ways to grow stem cells without these risks. But under the Bush policy, federally funded research cannot be conducted using these new, safer stem cell lines. This means that the Bush policy actually requires that any federally funded trials of stem cell therapies in humans must expose patients to the unnecessary risk of contracting diseases normally found in mice.

For these reasons, I would rescind the Bush administrations ban on federally funded research on human stem cell lines derived after August 9, 2001.

However, because stem cells are derived from human embryos, great care must be taken to safeguard against abuse and to conduct such research in keeping with the highest ethical standards. My administration would make government funds available for researchers studying human stem cells with strict controls on what research is funded and how the stem cells are obtained. To minimize the number of stem cell lines that need to be created, my administration would maintain a registry of available stem cell lines, and would work with their providers, on a voluntary basis, to ensure that licensing requirements are as simple and transparent as possible. The donation of excess human embryos must be voluntary: it must not have been coerced or induced through monetary or any other means. Moreover, a strict informed consent requirement must also be put in place. Individuals donating their embryos must understand that: the derivation of stem cells will destroy the embryos; the cells derived from the embryo may be used in human transplantation research; the derived cells or cell lines may be kept and used for many years; and although research of the derived cells may have commercial potential, the donor will not receive financial or any other benefits from any future financial development.

Research on human stem cell lines is crucial for the development of innovative and potentially curative treatments to the worst diseases. It can alleviate the suffering of millions of Americans. However, it must not be taken too far. Thats why I strongly support passage of the Human Cloning Ban and Stem Cell Research Protection Act, which establishes ethical standards for somatic cell nuclear transfer and prohibits human reproductive cloning.

Stem cell research will go on with or without government funding. By instituting these policies, we can ensure that the research complies with the highest ethical standards, and that it is carried out safely and humanely.