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Introduction 
This monitoring report has its origins in President George 
W. Bush’s remarks to the nation on August 9, 2001. It was his 
first major national policy address, and the topic was unusual: 
federal funding of research on human stem cells.* In the 
speech, the President announced that after several months of 
deliberation he had decided to make federal funding available, 
for the first time, for research involving certain lines of embryo- 
derived stem cells. At the end of the speech the President de- 
clared his intention to 
name a President’s Council to monitor stem cell research, 
to recommend appropriate guidelines and regulations, 
and to consider all of the medical and ethical ramifica- 
tions of biomedical innovation. . . . 'This council will keep 
us apprised of new developments and give our nation a 
forum to continue to discuss and evaluate these impor- 
tant issues.^ 
In keeping with the President’s intention, the Council has 
been monitoring developments in stem cell research, as it pro- 
ceeds under the implementation of the administration’s policy. 
Our desire has been both to understand what is going on in 
the laboratory and to consider for ourselves the various argu- 
ments made in the ongoing debates about the ethics of stem 
cell research and the wisdom of the current policy. Although 
Throughout this report, excluding appendices, all references to embryos, 
cells, or other biological materials are assumed to be of human origin unless 
otherwise stated. 
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