Below is the text from the House-Senate Conference report of the
omnibus appropriations bill as reported in the Congressional Record.
I'm not qualified to interpret the language. However, I will hazard
a lay person's guess as to the meaning. I believe the reference
"this act" applies to the omnibus bill as a whole. Contrary to
earlier reports, it does not appear that all federal funding of
fetal tissue research is banned, only funding of research in which
an embryo is either created or destroyed or subjected to risk of
injury. It would seem that tissue of an aborted dead fetus could be
donated for use in federally funded research. Can anyone confirm or
correct this? It also seems that the ban does not apply to funding
under a different act, such as defense appropriations.
Phil
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WAIS Document Retrieval
[Congressional Record: October 19, 1998 (House)]
[Page H11146-H11196]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr19oc98-29]
[[pp. H11146-H11196]] CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 4328, MAKING
OMNIBUS CONSOLIDATED AND
EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1999
EXCERPT FROM TITLE V--GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 511. (a) None of the funds made available in this Act
may be used for--
(1) the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research
purposes; or
(2) research in which a human embryo or embryos are
destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of
injury or death greater than that allowed for research on
fetuses in utero under 45 CFR 46.208(a)(2) and section 498(b)
of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 289g(b)).
(b) For purposes of this section, the term ``human embryo
or embryos'' includes any organism, not protected as a human
subject under 45 CFR 46 as of the date of the enactment of
this Act, that is derived by fertilization, parthenogenesis,
cloning, or any other means from one or more human gametes or
human diploid cells.
