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NIH Cancels Stem Cell Meeting NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Apr 13 - The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has cancelled an April 25 meeting regarding embryo stem-cell research, as US regulators move toward making a decision on whether such research should be federally funded at all. The NIH had scheduled the meeting to determine whether embryo stem-cell researchers applying for federal funding had followed ethical guidelines in obtaining the cells. Under US law, researchers are prevented from conducting experiments that destroy human embryos. However, under Clinton Administration guidelines, funding may be granted to those researchers that conduct research using cells derived from embryos created, but no longer needed, for in vitro fertilization. However, these new regulations have come under fire from the Bush Administration. In February, concurrent with the release of President Bush's new budget proposal, US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson said that the agency would conduct a review of whether the government should allow federal funds to support human embryonic stem cell research. Then, in early March, the Christian Medical Association filed a suit against HHS and NIH in order to halt funding of stem cell research that uses discarded embryos, calling the guidelines, issued in August 2000, "arbitrary and capricious" because they "fundamentally undermine long-established state laws and ethical norms that protect human life from medical experimentation." A spokesman from the NIH told Reuters Health that it would be "premature" to hold the April 25 meeting while an active review of stem cell research funding is underway. He added that a new date for the meeting has not been set. http://pharmacotherapy.medscape.com/reuters/prof/2001/04/04.16/20010413plcy001.html ********* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn