18 
Monitoring Stem Cell Research 
sent accurately the various features of the current federal pol- 
icy, many of which are not generally well understood. 
Chapter 3, “Recent Developments in the Ethical and Policy 
Debates,” provides an overview of the ethical and policy de- 
bates surrounding stem cell research in the past two years. 
Special attention is, of course, given to arguments about what 
may (or may not) be done with human embryos, and why. But 
those arguments are also reviewed in relation to larger de- 
bates about the other ethical and policy issues mentioned ear- 
lier. Our goal in that chapter is to present the arguments and 
counter-arguments, faithfully and accurately, rather than fi- 
nally to assess their validity. 
Finally, in Chapter 4, “Recent Developments in Stem Cell 
Research and Therapy," we offer an overview of some recent 
developments in the isolation and characterization of various 
kinds of stem cell preparations and a partial account of some 
significant research and clinical initiatives. In addition, by 
means of a selected case study, we consider how stem cell- 
based therapies might some day work to cure devastating 
human diseases, as well as the obstacles that need to be over- 
come before that dream can become a reality. Our goal in that 
chapter, as supplemented by several detailed commissioned 
review articles contained in the appendices, is to enable (es- 
pecially non-scientific) readers to appreciate the reasons for 
the excitement over stem cell research, the complexities of 
working with these materials, some early intriguing research 
and therapeutic findings, and the difficult road that must be 
traveled before we can reap therapeutic and other benefits 
from this potentially highly fertile field of research. 
After these three substantive chapters — on policy, ethics, 
and science — ^we offer a Glossary and a series of appendices, 
beginning (in Appendix A) with a brief primer on early human 
embryonic development. That primer aspires to provide the 
basic facts and concepts that any thoughtful and public- 
spirited person needs to know about human development and 
especially about (early) human embryos if he or she is to par- 
ticipate intelligently in the ethical and political deliberations 
that are certain to continue in our society for some time. There 
follow the texts of President Bush’s August 9, 2001, stem cell 
speech and the NIH guidelines (for both the Clinton and Bush 
PRE -PUBLICATION VERSION 
