Funds Banned for Creation of Embryos

The Clinton Administration on Friday announced that it would prohibit federal funding for creating human embryos solely for research purposes.

The announcement came on the same day that a National Institutes of Health panel endorsed guidelines that would have allowed funding for such research.

“I do not believe that federal funds should be used to support the creation of human embryos for research purposes,” Clinton said, “and I have directed that NIH not allocate any resources for such research.”

The decision does not constitute a ban on human embryo research, nor does it prohibit federal funding for research on “spare” human embryos fertilized for possible implantation in patients of in-vitro fertilization clinics.

It applies only to a guideline proposed by an NIH-appointed committee that scientists be allowed, under very special circumstances, to create human embryos specifically for research purposes. That recommendation was the most controversial of a set of proposed guidelines submitted to the NIH in September.

Human embryo research involves studies of the earliest weeks of development of the growing organism, beginning with the fertilization of an egg. It offers the promise of medical benefits such as insight into the processes of fertilization, better treatment for infertility, a clearer understanding of birth defects and improved contraceptive methods.

The developing organism is called a fetus after the end of the eighth week of development. Fetal tissue research--science that examines how tissues develop later in a pregnancy--had been prohibited from receiving federal funds during the George Bush Administration; Clinton relaxed that ban upon taking office. Fetal tissue research was not addressed in the recommended embryo research guidelines.

Friday’s announcement by the White House constitutes a significant shift in Administration policy. The Clinton Administration had initiated efforts to renew federal funding for human embryo research after an unofficial moratorium during the two previous Republican administrations.

Federal funding for human embryo research was cut off in 1980 when the charter expired for the sole agency that could fund the research. Legislation passed in 1993 made it possible to fund the research once more, and in early 1994, NIH Director Harold E. Varmus appointed the Human Embryo Research Panel to recommend guidelines for reviewing the applications that were already coming in.

Varmus refused to comment on Friday’s announcement by the White House. Patricia King, co-chair of the research panel and a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, said: “I don’t think that what the President did has as much to do with the merits of embryo research as politics.”

King, who as a panel member had expressed reservations about the creation of embryos solely for research, added: “The important thing is that the work gets started--because it has so much promise.”

A senior Administration official said Clinton decided several days ago he would not allow funding for creation of human embryos for research. White House officials staunchly denied that the decision was driven by the Republican sweep in the midterm elections or by the likelihood that the GOP would attack Clinton as a pro-abortion liberal if he allowed such funding.

“He said and he believes that this area raises very profound questions,” said William A. Galston, deputy assistant to the President for domestic policy. “It is very, very important that we not transgress ethical boundaries--even in the name of very great scientific and medical possibilities.”

Friday, the high-level NIH Advisory Committee to the Director had voted to accept the controversial report by its Human Embryo Research Panel. The panel had engaged in an arduous nine-month effort to draw boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable forms of research for the government to fund. Panelists received some 50,000 pieces of mail, much of it opposing the research.