US PUBLIC-POLICY ON EMBRYO RESEARCH - 2 STEPS FORWARD, ONE LARGE STEPBACK

This article gives an overview of the final report of the National Ins titutes of Health (NIH) Embryo Research Panel, which was issued on Sep tember 27, 1994 (NIH, 1994), The report was endorsed unanimously by th e Advisory Committee to the Director of the NIH, Harold Varmus, on Dec ember 2, 1994, A few hours later, President Clinton (Marshall, 1994) i ssued a statement announcing that he did 'not believe that federal fun ds should be used to support the creation of human embryos for researc h purposes', and that he had directed the NIH not to support such rese arch, which was one of the areas of research recommended for Federal f unding by the Panel. At present, Dr Varmus is in the process of consid ering the Panel's report and shaping guidelines to govern the review a nd conduct of human embryo research, Any guidelines will be published in the Federal Register for comment at a later date, As a result of ch anges brought about by Congress in 1993, Federal support for research focused on in-vitro fertilization (IVF) could go forward, This represe nted the first advance in research freedom in the Federal sector to st udy approaches to IVF. It will involve the NIH in peer review and scie ntific activities regarding IVF. Assuming that Dr Varmus develops guid elines to support human embryo research limited to use of 'spare' embr yos only and perhaps parthenogenotes, a second step will have been tak en, My view about the context and meaning of the President's decision, which is nonetheless a decided step to the rear, appears in the final part.