An early human embryo—now a 'human subject'? Credit: Science Library

The Bush Administration has revamped the charter of the federal advisory committee that addresses the safety of research volunteers, declaring for the first time that embryos used in research are 'human subjects' entitled to the same protections as fetuses, children and adults. “It begs the question of what is a human,” says Harvard University's Douglas Melton. “Has the White House adopted the Catholic Church's position that life begins at fertilization?”

The move comes as no surprise to stem-cell scientists in the US who have long experienced political efforts to curtail their work. “It seems evident that the Bush administration's inclusion of embryos along with fetuses as 'human subjects' is intended to justify its prohibition of the use of in vitro fertilization–derived blastocysts as a source of embryonic stem cells,” says Nobel Laureate Paul Berg of Stanford University. “By doing so, the president is standing in the way of achieving the goal he professed to be aiming for: creating new therapeutic approaches to life-threatening diseases. He does not seem to understand that most of the so-called stem-cell lines he approved for use in 2001 do not exist, or are not available for the research to develop those therapies,” says Berg.

Leonard Zon, professor of pediatric medicine at Harvard and a Howard Hughes Investigator does not see an immediate negative impact on stem-cell research, but does agree that this is probably the intended goal. “This may be one of the steps taken to limit future experiments in the field,” he says.

The amendment is not a rule of law; rather, it will take the form of a recommendation by the advisory committee to the Department of Health and Human Services. The committee itself has not yet been assembled, and some scientists fear that it will include prominent abortion foes who will encourage Congress to enact legislation that would convey such a status upon research embryos.