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Directive on Human Embryo Research
What follows is a letter that the Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Management and Budget John J. Callahan sent in February 1997 to all institutional officials regarding the human embryo research ban that has been in effect since Fiscal Year 1996. Individuals accessing this site are reminded that Congress, in its Fiscal Year 1998 law making appropriations for the National Institutes of Health, continued the human embryo research ban. This means that no Federal research funds may be used for the creation of a human embryo for research purposes or for research in which a human embryo is destroyed, discarded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that allowed for research on fetuses in utero. Further, Congress, in its FY 98 appropriations act directive, expanded the definition of a human embryo to "include any organism, not protected as a human subject under 45 CFR 46 as of the date of the enactment of this Act, that is derived by fertilization, parthenogenesis, cloning, or any other means from one or more human gametes or human diploid cells."
Assistant Secretary Callahan's letter addresses another legislative provision that also remains in effect, requiring publications derived from work done with Federal support to contain reference to the Federal support received and the proportion of the work supported.
Congress continued both the ban on human embryo research and the Federal support attribution provision in the Fiscal Year 1998 appropriations bill. For detailed information regarding these and the other legislative directives contained in the FY 98 appropriations law, please go to: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not98-013.html.
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