ABSTRACT

In August 2001, United States President George W. Bush gave his first speech on scientific research policy. Indeed, he interrupted his vacation to affirm his convictions about the importance of limiting embryonic stem cell research, a position shared by a core portion of the conservative Right. One of the measures he announced launched a lively controversy into the heart of the nation: to protect the lives of potential humans in embryo, Bush limited federally funded researchers to accessing only the stem-cell collection in existence prior to August 2001.