Embryo research restricted.

The federal government will not support studies that use human embryos created specifically for research purposes, President Clinton announced Dec. 2. He did not address studies that use fertilized eggs discarded by fertility centers.

Clinton stated that federal funding of human embryo research "raises profound ethical and moral questions." He added that the White House will establish a National Bioethics Advisory Commission next year.

Last year, Congress lifted a 1980 ban on government funding of any research involving human embryos.

Two National Institutes of Health committees have recently recommended that the government support experiments on very early embryos, including those using embryos developed solely for research (SN: 10/1/94, p.212). Such investigations might, for example, improve in vitro fertilization by examining what happens to a human egg matured and fertilized in the laboratory, committee members said. Or the research might evaluate new contraceptives.

At least in the last few years, U.S. scientists have not published a single study that used embryos created purely for research, says NIH panel member Brigid L.M. Hogan of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn. She bases her conclusion on a brief literature review she conducted. Such studies are being done in other countries, however, says Hogan.

Patricia A. King of Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., another NIH panel member, views Clinton's decision as only a minor setback, since some embryo research will continue.

The president's decision may succeed in appeasing Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Calif.), who had threatened to block federally funded experiments on human embryos. Before trading action, "we'll probably wait and see how broad Clinton's policy is," a Dornan spokesman says. The creation of embryos for research was one of Dornan's main objections to embryo experiments, he notes.