| National
Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical
and Behavioral Research
The first public national body
to shape bioethics policy in the U.S., this commission was
created by Congress in 1974 and was under the Dept. of Health,
Education and Welfare (now known as the Dept. of Health
and Human Services) until 1978.
President's Commission for
the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and
Behavioral Research
This Congressionally mandated group
was formed in 1978, succeeding the National Commission
for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical
and Behavioral Research. It worked independently from
January 1980 to March 1983.
Ethics Advisory Board (EAB)
This group began in 1978 under the
auspices of the Department of Health, Education and
Welfare. Its pronouncement on human embryo research
in 1979 followed by the EAB dissolution began a 15-year
moratorium on such research.
Human Fetal Tissue Transplantation
Research Panel
The National Institutes of Health created this 21 member
advisory panel, composed of medical researchers, clergy,
ethicists, lawyers, and politicians, to deliberate over
federal support of therapeutic transplantation research
using human tissue obtained from aborted fetuses. The group
existed from the spring to the fall of 1988. In its December
report, the panel in a majority vote of 19 to 2 recommended
continuing the funding for such research if guidelines were
established to keep abortion separate from the research.
Despite the recommendation, the moratorium on such research
that went into place as this topic was debated was extended
from a temporary one to an indefinite one.
- Report of the Human Fetal Tissue Transplantation Research
Panel (1988)
Human Embryo Research Panel
(National Institutes of Health)
This panel was formed by the National Institutes
of Health in January 1994. The group classified human embryo
research into three categories: acceptable, needing additional
review, and unacceptable. It also drafted guidelines for
the review and conduct of acceptable research. The Advisory
Committee to the Director of NIH unanimously approved the
report, but President Clinton issued a statement saying,
"I do not believe that federal funds should be used
to support the creation of human embryos for research purposes,
and I have directed that NIH not allocate any resources
for such research."
Biomedical Ethical
Advisory Committee
The 14 initial members of this Committee
were selected by the Biomedical Ethics Board, which was
made up of six senators and six members of Congress. The
group functioned only briefly from late 1988 to early 1989
and had two meetings before its parent group became politically
deadlocked due to abortion politics, its appropriations
were frozen, and finally its term expired in 1990.
National Bioethics
Advisory Commission (NBAC)
This commission met for the first
time in 1996, a year after it was created by Executive
Order. It expired in 2001.
President's
Council on Bioethics
Created by President George W. Bush in 2001, the Council
was charged with advising the President on bioethical issues
that may emerge as a consequence of advances in biomedical
science and technology. It expired in 2009.
Advisory Committee
on Human Radiation Experiments
Created in January 1994 and dissolved in
October 1995, the 14-member Committee was charged with investigating
and reporting on the use of human beings as subjects of
federally funded research using ionizing radiation. To maximize
public access as required under the Federal Advisory Committee
Act, the Committee created for the first time a gopher site
on the World Wide Web, which is now under the National Security
Agency Archives at
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/radiation/ . For additional
information, see http://www.hss.energy.gov/HealthSafety/ohre/roadmap/index.html
NIH-DOE Joint
Working Group on Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI)
of Human Genome Research
ELSI is the largest bioethics initiative
funded by the government, where a percentage of the research
budgets within the U.S. Dept. of Energy and the U.S. Dept.
of Health and Human Services is set aside to study the ethical,
legal and social implications of research on the human genome.
Begun in 1989, a joint working group between the two departments
analyzes critical issues and provides guidance. Currently
ELSI focuses on four priority areas: (1) the use and interpretation
of genetic information; (2) clinical integration of genetic
technologies; (3) issues surrounding genetics research;
and (4) public and professional education and training on
those issues.
Great
Britain: The Warnock Report on Human Fertilisation and Embryology
Chaired by Dame Mary Warnock, the
15-member committee examined the social, ethical,
and legal implications of developments in assisted
reproduction.
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