Cloning Heats Up as Next Bioresearch Fight

As the Obama administration prepares to greatly expand the government's investments in embryonic stem cell research, the next big biomedical research debate in Congress is shaping up: whether to allow government funding of experiments using cloned human embryos.

Two House members who were the chief backers of legislation to expand embryonic stem cell research are working on a new bill that would codify President Obama's recent executive order allowing greater federal funding for the research. Their legislation will also contain language allowing the National Institutes of Health to invest in other kinds of research into human cell biology, perhaps including what is known as "therapeutic cloning."

Some scientists were disappointed April 17 when the NIH issued draft guidelines for embryonic stem cell research that excludes from federal funding cell lines developed using a procedure called "somatic cell nuclear transfer," or SCNT. Synonymous with therapeutic cloning, the procedure could theoretically yield stem cells from human embryos that are genetic copies of adults.

Experts in the field believe that therapeutic cloning could one day lead to advances such as tissue transplants that...