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The US National Institutes of Health is forging ahead with a controversial
plan to fund research into embryonic stem cells. These cells would be taken from
embryos created by IVF. A proposal says the NIH would fund scientists who study
stem cells provided by privately funded researchers. Critics claim this flouts
the spirit of a law that forbids government funding for research that destroys
human embryos. “This is the Pontius Pilate approach of washing one’s hands,”
says Frank Young, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and an
ordained minister in Washington DC.