On May 31, the French National Assembly voted to maintain a prohibition on using human embryo and embryonic stem cells for research with some exemptions on 'medical progress' grounds—that is, diagnosis and drug testing. This second revision to the country's 1994 bioethics law, first revised in 2001, has triggered an intense debate. On February 15, the Assembly initially voted to maintain the existing prohibition. This was followed on April 8 by the Senate's support for embryonic research if done within a strict regulatory framework—a view backed by the special National Assembly bioethics commission. Ignoring its own commission's recommendations, the Assembly voted on May 25 to keep the prohibition with exemptions granted by the French Biomedicine Agency. Noël Mamère, Green MP commented during the debates, “a politics of status quo on a subject of this importance is like regression,” whereas Alain Clayes, president of the Assembly's special bioethics commission, qualified the vote as a “missed opportunity.” For scientists, the prospect of working under an exemption raises uncertainty and is thus particularly problematic to secure funding.