NIH Issues Draft of Guidelines Governing Stem Cell Research

BETHESDA, Md—The National Institutes of Health has proposed a set of guidelines aimed at ensuring the ethical and legal conduct of any embryonic and fetal stem cell research that it funds.

The guidelines sanction research on cell lines from fetal tissue, work that develops new cells lines from fetal tissue, and research on cell lines privately derived from human embryos.

The guidelines prohibit studies that would create or contribute to a human embryo, combine human stem cells with an animal embryo, or engage in reproductive cloning of a human. Also barred are studies in which stem cells are derived using somatic cell nuclear transfer into a human or animal egg, and those in which stem cells are derived from human embryos created for