Are U.S. scientists prohibited from doing certain kinds of embryonic stem-cell research?
No. There are virtually no restrictions on the kind of stem-cell research that may be done in this country. The federal restrictions are on the use of federal dollars for embryonic stem-cell research. With private money, scientists can do practically anything they want. That said, the federal funding restrictions do create problems for scientists. Most academic institutions receive some federal money, and it requires scrupulous accounting. In some cases, university researchers must use separate facilities that are off-campus if they want to work on any stem-cell lines not approved for federal funding. Some scientists are using cloning techniques to obtain embryonic stem cells. Is the cloning technique to make stem cells the same as the cloning technique to make a baby? Yes and no. The process starts out the same in both scenarios. The nucleus of an adult cell is inserted into an egg from which the DNA has been removed. The egg is then coaxed to start dividing, becoming an embryo. But h
