Acosta Nefi D, Golub Sidney H
Nefi D. Acosta, J.D., is a recent graduate of the University of California, Irvine School of Law. Sidney H. Golub, Ph.D., is the Edward A. Dickson Professor Emeritus of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics and Interim Director of the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine.
J Law Med Ethics. 2016 Sep;44(3):419-36. doi: 10.1177/1073110516667939.
Stem cell policy in the United States is an amalgam of federal and state policies. The scientific development of human pluripotent embryonic stem cells (ESCs) triggered a contentious national stem cell policy debate during the administration of President George W. Bush. The Bush "compromise" that allowed federal funding to study only a very limited number of ESC derived cell lines did not satisfy either the researchers or the patient advocates who saw great medical potential being stifled. Neither more restrictive legislation nor expansion of federal funding proved politically possible and the federal impasse opened the door for a variety of state-based experiments. In 2004, California became the largest and most influential state venture into stem cell research by passing "Prop 71," a voter initiative that created a new stem cell agency and funded it with $3 billion. Several states followed suit with similar programs to protect the right of investigators to do stem cell research and in some cases to invest state funding in such projects. Other states devised legislation to restrict stem cell research and in five states, criminal penalties were included. Thus, the US stem cell policy is a patchwork of multiple, often conflicting, state and federal policies.
美国的干细胞政策是联邦政策和州政策的混合体。人类多能胚胎干细胞（ESC）的科学发展在乔治·W·布什总统执政期间引发了一场有争议的全国性干细胞政策辩论。布什的“妥协”方案允许联邦资金仅用于研究数量非常有限的ESC衍生细胞系，这既没有让研究人员满意，也没有让患者权益倡导者满意，他们认为巨大的医学潜力受到了抑制。事实证明，无论是更严格的立法还是扩大联邦资金，在政治上都是不可能的，而联邦层面的僵局为各种基于州的试验打开了大门。2004年，加利福尼亚州通过了“71号提案”，这是一项选民倡议，创建了一个新的干细胞机构并为其提供30亿美元资金，成为涉足干细胞研究的最大且最具影响力的州。其他几个州也纷纷效仿，推出类似项目以保护研究人员进行干细胞研究的权利，在某些情况下还向此类项目投入州资金。还有一些州制定立法限制干细胞研究，在五个州甚至纳入了刑事处罚。因此，美国的干细胞政策是由多个往往相互冲突的州和联邦政策拼凑而成的。
