
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, December 3, 1994                   TAG: 9412060025
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

FUNDING PROHIBITED FOR EMBRYO CREATION

The Clinton administration announced Friday that it would prohibit federal funding for creating human embryos solely for research purposes. The announcement came on the same day that a National Institutes of Health advisory panel endorsed guidelines that would have allowed funding for such research.

``I do not believe that federal funds should be used to support the creation of human embryos for research purposes,'' Clinton said, ``and I have directed that NIH not allocate any resources for such research.''

The decision does not constitute a ban on human embryo research, nor does it prohibit federal funding for research on ``spare'' human embryos fertilized for possible implantation in patients of in-vitro fertilization clinics.

It applies only to a guideline proposed by an NIH-appointed committee that scientists be allowed, under highly special circumstances, to create human embryos specifically for research purposes. That recommendation was the most controversial of a set of proposed guidelines submitted to the NIH in September.

Human embryo research involves studies of the earliest weeks of development of the growing organism, beginning with the fertilization of an egg. It offers the promise of medical benefits such as insight into the processes of fertilization, better treatment for infertility, a clearer understanding of birth defects and improved contraceptive methods.

The developing organism is called a fetus after the end of the eighth week of development. Fetal tissue research - science that examines how tissues develop later in a pregnancy - had been prohibited from receiving federal funds during the Bush administration; Clinton relaxed that ban on taking office. Fetal tissue research was not addressed in the recommended embryo research guidelines.

by CNB