Appendix B. 
Remarks by President George W. Bush 
on Stem Cell Research 
August 9, 2001 
The Bush Ranch 
Crawford, Texas 
THE PRESIDENT: “Good evening. I appreciate you giving me a few 
minutes of your time tonight so I can discuss with you a complex and 
difficult issue, an issue that is one of the most profound of our time. 
The issue of research involving stem cells derived from 
human embryos is increasingly the subject of a national debate and 
dinner table discussions. The issue is confronted every day in 
laboratories as scientists ponder the ethical ramifications of their 
work. It is agonized over by parents and many couples as they try to 
have children, or to save children already bom. 
The issue is debated within the church, with people of 
different faiths, even many of the same faith coming to different 
conclusions. Many people are finding that the more they know about 
stem cell research, the less certain they are about the right ethical 
and moral conclusions. 
My administration must decide whether to allow federal 
funds, your tax dollars, to be used for scientific research on stem cells 
derived from human embryos. A large number of these embryos 
already exist. They are the product of a process called in vitro 
fertilization, which helps so many couples conceive children. When 
doctors match sperm and egg to create life outside the womb, they 
usually produce more embryos than are planted in the mother. Once 
a couple successfully has children, or if they are unsuccessful, the 
additional embryos remain frozen in laboratories. 
Some will not survive during long storage; others are 
destroyed. A number have been donated to science and used to 
create privately funded stem cell lines. And a few have been 
implanted in an adoptive mother and bom, and are today healthy 
children. 
Based on preliminary work that has been privately funded, 
scientists beheve further research using stem cells offers great 
promise that could help improve the lives of those who suffer from 
many terrible diseases — from juvenile diabetes to Alzheimer's, from 
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