Director of NIH Wants Expansion of Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Breaking with White House policy, Dr. Elias Zerhouni the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has thrown his support behind efforts to expand US government subsidies for embryonic stem-cell research.
Dr. Zerhouni told a Senate health subcommittee that it is clear today that American science will be better-served, and the nation will be better-served, if they let their scientists have access to more stem cell lines.
Dr. Zerhouni, who was appointed by President Bush in 2002 to head the NIH, said that he would support opening up federal funding to include the use of embryonic tissue beyond the 22 lines that President George W. Bush had previously cleared for tax-subsidized research.
A White House spokesman confirmed that Zerhouni was breaking with the policy of the Bush administration by suggesting an expansion of federal subsidies beyond the lines of embryonic tissue already approved for tax-funded research. According to the Family Research Council, those lines of tissue are already used in 85% of the embryonic stem-cell research done in the world today.
