Did the federal government in 2001 forbid funding any embryonic stem cell research?
No. In fact, the federal government has given more than $175 million to human embryonic stem cell research since 2001. But on August 9 of that year, President Bush said that federally funded research would use only embryonic stem cells already in existence (obtained by destroying embryos prior to that date). In this way, he reasoned, federal funds could be used to explore this research, without encouraging researchers to destroy new embryos in order to obtain federal grants. Some of these existing stem cell samples have been used to create more than 20 cell lines for research, and others remain in storage for possible use in creating new cell lines in the future. There is no legal limit on the amount of funding that can be used for this avenue; if the total funding for it is relatively small, that is chiefly because researchers are not requesting the funds as they are finding other avenues more promising. Has research using adult stem cells accomplished anything? Thousands of lives hav
