FAUCI DIARY ARCHIVE — Thursday, August 9, 2001
https://faucisdiary.com/diary/2001-08-09

Text below is verbatim from the released PDFs, with the original line breaks.
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DIARY ENTRY — Thursday, August 9, 2001
Source: Diary Prequel, p. 31 of 2026.07.27_Diary-Prequel-.pdf
Words: 301
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After much deliberation and soul searching, President Bush decided
and announced that Federal funding would be allowed for research on embryo-derived
stem cells. However, funding would be restricted to work on embryonic stem cell lines
that had either already been established or were in the process of being established (i.e.
the stem cells had already been removed from the embryo as of August 9, 2001). NIH
(mostly in the form of Lana Skirboll) had canvassed the world and found that 60 such
lines were in existence, many in the private sector. The lines were growing robustly and
were established according to the 4 points that President Bush mentioned in his speech,
i.e. they had to be in vitro fertilized embryos that fulfilled the following criteria: 1)
informed consent; 2) in excess of clinical need; 3) not done as a result of financial
inducement; 4) embryos not established for the purpose of research.
         The public response was that the far right felt that the President had betrayed his
pledge not to fund research on embryonic stem cells. Several scientists felt that he had
not gone far enough since he restricted granting of Federal funds for further (after August
9) use of embryos to derive stem cells. I felt that Bush went as far as he could go
politically since on the one hand, if he disallowed any work on embryonic stem cells, the
far right would have been happy, but it would not be a sustainable position for the general
public. On the other hand, if he allowed the unrestricted use of embryos that had been
established for in vitro fertilization (even though this was what I hoped he would do), the
conservatives would have damaged him politically. In other words, I believe that he went
as far as he could go.