What is the overall policy governing US stem cell research?
In 2001 former President George W. Bush, essentially allowed stem cell research to occur in the US using only “existing cell lines”, or stem cells that were previously extracted from embryos and growing in cultures. He banned research on “new cell lines” which would involve extracting stem cells from new or existing embryos. This proved to be extremely limiting for scientists, because there were very few existing cells lines for them to work with. However, in March of 2009, President Barack Obama revoked the previous executive order, and now American scientists will be allowed to create new cell lines for research, so long as no new embryos are being created solely for the purpose of harvesting stem cells. This means, that embryos from IVF fertility treatments can now be used.
