HORTICULTURE

Detailed explanation-1: -President Bush is the first President to provide Federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. Since 2001, the Administration has made more than $170 million available for research on stem cell lines derived from human embryos that had already been destroyed.

Detailed explanation-2: -NIH funding of the derivation of stem cells from human embryos is prohibited by the annual appropriations ban on the funding of human embryo research. Research using hESCs derived from other sources is also not eligible for funding.

Detailed explanation-3: -Opponents argue that the research is unethical, because deriving the stem cells destroys the blastocyst, an unimplanted human embryo at the sixth to eighth day of development. As Bush declared when he vetoed last year’s stem cell bill, the federal government should not support “the taking of innocent human life.”