A LONG-RUNNING battle in the US over research using human embryos looks certain to flare up again following the Republicans鈥� victory in last month鈥檚 midterm Congressional elections.
The last two presidents, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, were Republicans who opposed embryo research on moral grounds, and they stopped any federal funds being spent on it. Two years ago, Bill Clinton announced that he would lift this ban, and gave the National Institutes of 午夜福利1000集合, near Washington DC, the task of drawing up guidelines to govern studies in the field. But with the Republicans now in power in Congress, that exercise may be pointless.
In November, after deliberating for 10 months, an NIH panel put forward draft guidelines for research. It recommended that experiments should be allowed on human embryos up to 14 days old, and that scientists should be permitted to create embryos specifically for research (This Week, 8 October). An NIH advisory committee has since endorsed these guidelines.
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It was expected that once Harold Varmus, the institutes鈥� director, had added his approval, the NIH would be able to begin funding embryo research. But Varmus鈥檚 decision has been pre-empted in part by Clinton. Earlier this month the President announced that because of 鈥減rofound ethical and moral questions鈥� he would not allow government funded scientists to create human embryos for research. As a result, researchers will only be able to use embryos left after IVF treatments.
Some members of the NIH鈥檚 panel and committee say Clinton鈥檚 announcement is understandable, because creation of embryos for research is widely viewed as the most controversial of the recommendations. Others question the motives behind the decision. Alta Charo of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who served on the panel, says the decision seems to have been influenced not by Clinton鈥檚 science staff, but by his political advisers.
鈥淢y guess,鈥� says David Challoner of the University of Florida, who served on the advisory committee, 鈥渋s the administration wants to avoid as much heat as can be avoided in its debate with the right鈥�.
If this is the case, Clinton鈥檚 compromise is unlikely to satisfy his opponents. 鈥淥ur feeling right now is that the Clinton statement did not go far enough,鈥� says a spokesman for Congressman Robert Dornan, a Republican from California. Dornan has led opposition to human embryo research and promises to introduce legislation to starve it of federal funding.
Among his allies, Dornan counts newly elected speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich. If the Republicans decide to push the issue, they could hold up funding for the NIH until it changes its policy.
Proponents of human embryo research continue to argue that it would help infertile parents to conceive, aid in the development of better birth control techniques and help to prevent disabilities. But this cause is easier to ignore than the Republicans鈥�, says Charo. 鈥淢y instinct is this is a dead duck.鈥�