Introduction 
17 
from both supporters and opponents of the current policy on 
federal funding of ES cell research. 
We have considered arguments — presented by scientists 
and patient-advocacy groups, and shared by some Members of 
the Council — ^that the current policy is impeding potentially 
life-saving research, for example, by offering researchers too 
few useful ES cell lines to work with, by causing a chilling ef- 
fect on the whole field, or by allowing the field to be domi- 
nated by private companies, less given (than are publicly- 
funded academic scientists) to publishing and sharing the re- 
sults of their research. We have considered arguments — 
presented by various critics and opponents of embryonic stem 
cell research, and shared by some Members of the Coimcil — 
that the current policy has opened the path toward the possi- 
bility of "embryo farming” or that it risks weakening our re- 
spect for nascent life and our willingness to protect the weak- 
est lives among us. We have heard from ethicists and scientific 
researchers, representatives of biopharmaceutical companies 
and disease research foimdations, and senior government offi- 
cials from such agencies as the National Institutes of Health 
and the Food and Drug Administration. We benefited from 
working papers prepared by the Council's staff and from exist- 
ing reports on stem cell research, and in particular reports by 
the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (1999) and the 
National Academies (2001).® Holding our own personal views 
in abeyance, we have tried in the three chapters that follow to 
synthesize accurately and fairly what we have heard and 
learned: about current law and policy, about the state of the 
ethical debate, and about the current state of scientific re- 
search. 
Chapter 2, “Current Federal Law and Policy," describes and 
explains the current federal policy regarding stem cell re- 
search. It locates that policy in relation to previous law and 
policy touching this area of research and tries to make clear 
the ethical, legal, and prudential foundations on which the pol- 
icy rests. It then describes the implementation of the policy 
and other relevant considerations. Our goal in that chapter is 
to describe and understand the present policy situation, in its 
legal, political, scientific, and ethical colorations, and to pre- 
PRE -PUBLICATION VERSION 
