xviii Monitoring Stem Cell Research 
science and ethics of stem cell research took place at our third 
meeting, in April of 2002, where presentations were made by 
two prominent stem cell researchers (John Gearhart of Johns 
Hopkins University and Catherine Verfaillie of the University of 
Minnesota) and an ethicist (Gene Outka of Yale University), at 
a time when we were still mostly engrossed in our discussions 
of human cloning. Over the course of the following year and a 
half, even as the Council was preparing the reports Human 
Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry (July 2002) and 
Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness 
(October 2003), it was gathering information on stem cell re- 
search and devoting increasing portions of its meeting agen- 
das to this topic, which was ultimately discussed at six meet- 
ings (specifically, in April and July of 2002; and in June, July, 
September, and October of 2003). 
The Council heard presentations from numerous experts in 
the relevant scientific, ethical, social, advocacy, and entrepre- 
neurial arenas, and received public comment, oral and written. 
The Members engaged in serious deliberation throughout the 
process. All told, fourteen sessions, of ninety minutes each, 
were devoted to the subject at public meetings. Complete 
transcripts of all these sessions are available to the public on 
the Council’s website at www.bioethics.gov. 
The present monitoring report draws directly upon those 
sessions and discussions, as well as on written material pre- 
pared by Council members, staff, and consultants. As noted in 
Chapter 1, it is in the spirit of an “update” and contains no rec- 
ommendations for policy. 
We hope the report, with its overview chapters on the law, 
ethics, and science of stem cell research, and its extensive 
supporting material located in the appendices, will serve as a 
source of clear, intelligible, and useful information for both 
policymakers and the general public regarding the current 
state of this important research and of the debates that sur- 
round it. 
In creating this Council, President Bush expressed his de- 
sire to see us 
consider all of the medical and ethical ramifications of 
biomedical innovation. . . . This council will keep us ap- 
PRE -PUBLICATION VERSION 
