66 
Ethical and Policy Developments 
ing the approved stem cell lines provide striking evidence for 
the chilling effect of the current “in limbo” situation. Some 
have also suggested that safety issues connected with the 
way the eligible lines have been derived and developed may 
make them less suitable for use in human trials and treat- 
ments, thus making other cell lines necessary (although pres- 
entations before this Council by NIH Director Elias Zerhouni 
and FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan have contradicted 
some of these claims)."^^ Others, meanwhile, worry that the eli- 
gible lines do not offer sufficient genetic diversity to be ade- 
quate for research needs or for eventual therapies.^^ As scien- 
tists make their case that important work is being hampered, 
it is argued, the policy will prove unsustainable politically and 
practically.'^^ 
A similar argument has also been made in nearly the oppo- 
site terms. That is, some have said that if or when ongoing 
embryonic stem cell research produces a spectacular break- 
through in understanding or treating disease, the pressure to 
alter the policy would prove unstoppable.^^ This way, whether 
the future brings announcements of great progress, or whether 
it brings no news of advances, the result will be pressure for a 
policy that funds research more broadly. 
Those defenders of the policy who have addressed these 
claims of unsustainability have pointed out that the present 
policy does not limit the amount of federal funds available to 
the kind of research that may be performed with the approved 
cell lines. They also point out that much of the pioneering work 
in mouse stem cell research was done using very few (ap- 
proximately 5) cell lines^® (though of course the challenge of 
working with human cell lines is more complex and daunting). 
But they have also generally pointed to the policy’s stated 
grounding in principle — a principle that would not change in 
light of scientific advances or delays. In August of 2001, for in- 
stance, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thomp- 
son told reporters that “neither imexpected scientific break- 
throughs nor unanticipated research problems would cause 
Bush to reconsider” the approach drawn by the policy, be- 
cause it is based on “a high moral line that this president is 
not going to cross. As another observer has put it: “The 
general question is, well, will these cell lines be enough . . . 
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