THE contrast could hardly be greater. Last week South Korea awarded an extra $1 million to 鈥渃loning king鈥� Woo Suk Hwang at Seoul National University after his success deriving embryonic stem cells via therapeutic cloning. He has already received $26 million for his work in various forms of government funding.
In the US, federally funded researchers can work with only a handful of embryonic stem cell (ESC) lines derived before August 2001. However, there are no national restrictions on privately funded research.
Perhaps galvanised by Hwang鈥檚 success, the US House of Representatives last week passed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act by 238 votes to 194. The act would allow federally funded researchers to study ESCs derived from spare or rejected IVF embryos, provided the couples who donate them are not paid. Private research groups in the US have already created hundreds of cell lines from such embryos.
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The bill still has to be passed by the Senate, and President Bush has threatened to veto it if it is passed. But Republican senator Arlen Specter, one of the act鈥檚 sponsors, claims he can garner the two-thirds majority required to overturn any presidential veto.
