US committee ready to endorse embryo cell research WASHINGTON, July 14, 1999 (Reuters) - Experts who advise President Bill Clinton on biotechnology are ready to endorse some kinds of research using cells taken from human embryos, the White House said on Wednesday. The National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) has been leaning toward allowing federal funding of research involving the stem cells, which have the potential to give rise to any kind of cell in the body. Researchers hope to use them for tissue transplants to help people with diseases such as heart disease or PARKINSON'S disease, for drug tests and even as possible replacements for organ transplants. The NBAC, which includes scientists, patient advocates, ethicists and philosophers, has been finishing its advisory report at a meeting that ended on Wednesday in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ``NBAC has completed its deliberations and appears ready to endorse the medical promise and ethical acceptability of certain types of human stem cell research,'' the White House statement said. ``The Clinton administration recognizes that human stem cell technology's potential medical benefits are compelling and worthy of pursuit, so long as the research is conducted according to the highest ethical standards.'' The research has been controversial because it involves the use of human embryos. They are currently taken from clinics working with in vitro fertilization (IVF or test-tube) attempts. Many times embryos -- at a very early stage after fertilization -- are left over and couples can donate them for research, keep them for later use or have them destroyed. Opponents of stem cell research say these early embryos are human beings and should not be destroyed or manipulated in any way that could harm them. Many scientists and patients argue the embryos are balls of just a few cells and are destined for destruction anyway. Harold Shapiro, head of the NBAC and president of Princeton University, had said the panel would probably endorse the use of some tissue, but not the deliberate creation of human embryos for simple research. The White House said that position would stand. ``The president's 1994 ban on the use of federal funds for the creation of human embryos for research purposes will remain in effect. No other legal actions are necessary at this time, because it appears that human embryonic stem cells will be available from the private sector,'' the statement said. ``Publicly funded research using these cells is permissible under the current congressional ban on human embryo research.'' Dr. Harold Varmus, head of the National Institutes of Health, has said it would be legal to fund scientists who use embryonic stem cells so long as they do not themselves extract the cells from the embryos. Many private companies do that and at least one, Geron (Nasdaq:GERN - news), is exploring the possibility of creating human embryos for the express purpose of obtaining the cells. Copyright © 1999 Reuters Limited. -- Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada [log in to unmask] ^^^ \ / \ | / Today’s Research \\ | // ...Tomorrow’s Cure \ | / \|/ ```````