On Monday, the Senate will being debate on three bills related to stem cell research.  Below is a brief description of each bill.

Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006 (S.3504) - This bill amends the current fetal tissue code to prohibit the solicitation or acceptance of tissue from fetuses gestated for research purposes.  It would prevent persons or entities engaged in interstate commerce from acquiring tissue resulting from the deliberate implantation of a human embryo into a woman’s uterus or an animal uterus in order to grow the embryo or fetus to a later stage of development before destroying the fetus for research purposes.

Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act (S.2754) - This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to require the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct and support basic and applied research to develop techniques for the isolation, derivation, production, or testing of stem cells that have pluripotent qualities.  Specifically, this refers to stem cells that have the capability of producing all or most of the cell types of the developing body and that may result in improved understanding of or treatments for diseases and other adverse health conditions.  This bill intends to intensify such research into alternative ways of deriving pluripotent stem cell.  This bill seeks to promote the derivation of pluripotent stem cell lines from alternative sources that do not require the creation of human embryos for research purposes or discarding, destroying, or knowingly harming a human embryo or fetus.  

Taxpayer Funding for Human Embryo Experimentation (H.R.810) - This bill would violate a decades-long policy against forcing taxpayers to support the destruction of early human life.  Federal funds would promote research using “new” embryonic stem cell lines, encouraging researchers to destroy countless human embryos to provide more cell lines and qualify for federal grants.

Click here to read frequently asked questions about stem cells.

Click here to read a report on stem cells and cloning.

Visit the Web site, StemCellResearch.org.