by Arthur Caplan

About the author: Arthur Caplan is director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of numerous books on medical ethics, including Moral Matters: Ethical Issues in Medicine and the Life Sciences.

Editor’s note: In November 1998 the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it was considering allowing the National Institutes of Health to fund research on human embryonic stem cells, which are derived from aborted embryos or embryos created through in vitro fertilization. This viewpoint was given as testimony in a December 1998 Senate hearing in which experts debated whether such research would violate Congress’s ban on federal funding for research that involves the destruction of human embryos. On January 15, 1999, HHS announced that it would allow federal funding of research on stem...