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At 07:25 AM 10/02/2000 -0400, you wrote: >Yesterday, I went through all my files on this issue, and by now am very >confused. There are a lot of contradictions in news reports on exactly >what the guidelines and the postponement S.2015 mean. Linda, What the Washington Post said is correct: ****************************************************************************************************** A Washington Post article stated, " The new guidelines forbid the use of federal funds to destroy human embryos directly, but they permit federal research on stem cells taken from embryos by privately financed researchers. " S.2015, Senator Specter's and Harkin's bill would have allowed researchers to use federal funds both to harvest and experiment with the cells and also establish guidelines for their use. Debate and voting on this bill has been postponed until the next session of Congress. ******************************************************************************* Had the request UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST--S. 2015 (Senate - September 28, 2000) [Page: S9446] GPO's PDF gone through last Thursday, they would have had only 3 hours to debate, vote for or against S.2015. The request was denied. At least the Sen. Specter Committee shouldn't have to go through having all the testimony again, as they had to this year, which is one of the things which delayed it being brought up for vote this year. First they had to wait for the NIH guidelines to be approved, and then they had to have hearing on OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS, then they had to allow for anyone wanting to add amendments time to do so. IMOHO, I don't think it would have passed this year because there is still a lot of controversy over it. It was so late in the year before Clinton did his thing allowing the NIH to set guidelines. So by holding it over till next year, Sen. Specters committee will not have to hold new hearings over it, but just continue. They will still have all of Sen. Brownback's amendments to contend with. Linda's Questions: 1. Is the NIH still able to fund stem cell research under the current guidelines? Yes, but the way the NIH guidelines are written, NIH monies cannot be used to research the embryos directly, they have to purchase them from privately owned research facilities, and that is more expensive and much slower. Murray posted an excellent URL for this, its in the archives. 2. In what way could these guidelines be changed - Are you talking about NIH Guidelines, or amendments to the S.2015 Bill. Part 2 of 2 question: is it possible for the next President or Congress impose a new ban on NIH funding? Yes, Ronald Reagan certainly placed a ban on all research of this kind, and Geo. Bush Sr. continued it. How they did it, you'll have to ask someone else, I'm not smart enough to have ever been able to figure it out. 3. How will the postponement of S. 2015 affect current NIH funding? It won't affect current NIH Funding. Only HOW they are able to use Federal Funding . The S.2015 Bill is an amendment to the PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT to provide for research with respect to human embryonic stem cells. Not a Bill to change anything pertaining to the NIH Guidelines, but to supplement them. We are talking apples and oranges here. However, if S.2015 isn't passed then Stem Cell Research will be slowed down considerably, just guessing, I'd say by several years. We all know how long it is for anything Federal to get cranked up and working anyway, even without delays. 4. What can those supporting stem cell research do at this point? IMOHO, I think we can make certain we elect persons in our States to Congress who feel as we do over Stem Cell Research, and on the Federal Level we certainly don't want a President who will most certainly follow his parties tradition and Ban Research. Linda, This is just my opinion, and I look forward to someone who knows a lot more about it than I do (which is just about everyone), telling us for sure what all these things mean. I think it was Michel, (my adopted Brother) who said that the research will be continued by another country, and then they can make fun of us. One thing I have learned on this list about Michel is: He knows what he's talking about. He has seniority on us, and the experience gained through seniority can't be purchased. I'm so thankful he's so willing to share his knowledge with us. I hope this will answer some of your questions. just me, Marjorie