U.S. stem cell research rules ease some restrictions

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government released new rules on Monday governing federally funded research on human embryonic stem cells, loosening some ethical requirements that scientists said could have cost them a decade of work.

The rules, which take effect on Tuesday, keep many existing restrictions on the research. U.S. federal funds may still not be used to actually make the cells using human embryos -- only to work with the cells after someone else has made them.

But the National Institutes of Health, which issued the rules, eased some of the measures in the initial guidelines drawn up in March, including the so-called "informed consent" requirements meant to ensure that people who donated embryos for research knew exactly what they might be used for.

"We allow a case-by-case review," acting NIH director Dr. Raynard Kington told reporters in a telephone briefing.

In March, President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research that had been put in place by his predecessor, former president George W. Bush and asked the NIH to draw up new guidelines.

Stem cell company stocks did not move much on news of the new rules, in part because the changes mostly affect academic researchers who rely heavily on federal funding for their work.

The NIH guidelines take into account many of the arguments put forward during nearly 10 years of debate over how best to use the potential of human embryonic stem cells, which have the power to give rise to all the cells and tissues in the body and which supporters hope can transform medicine.

Opponents say it is wrong to destroy human embryos for any reason.