Legislative Background
Recent Executive and Congressional Action
In January 1999, shortly after researchers from the University of Wisconsin and Johns Hopkins University published the results of their work on stem cells from human embryos and fetuses, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requested a legal opinion from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on whether Federal funds could be used to support such research.Clinton Administration Guidelines The response from HHS was that current law prohibiting the use of Federal funds for human embryo research would not apply to research using human stem cells "because such cells are not a human embryo within the statutory definition."…
