Legislators Toolkit: State Public Policy

Research on stem cells that is not federally funded falls under the regulation of the states in which the research is conducted.

Currently, state laws vary widely in their support and opposition to utilizing and creating blastocysts for the purposes of extracting pluripotent stem cells for research.

Current and Pending State Policies

Current and Pending Support

A number of states have chosen to proactively attract early human stem cell research efforts. Most of these states have garnered millions, and in some cases billions, of dollars to support research that is not eligible for federal fundsas determined by President Bush’s August 2001 stem cell research policy.

Source: http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparetable.jsp?ind=112&cat=2

Current Restrictions

While many states are making extraordinary efforts to attract early human stem cell research, other states have restrictions in their laws prohibiting various forms of early human stem cell research. These restrictions vary from state to state. Some states have specific bans on early human stem cell research derived from in vitro fertilization techniques while others only ban “therapeutic cloning.” Others include language that bans research on “live” or “non-living” embryos, which may be construed to include a ban on early human stem cell research.

The National Conference of State Legislators website includes a comprehensive review of state laws affecting stem cell research.

State Embryonic and Fetal Research Laws:
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/genetics/embfet.htm

State Human Cloning Laws:
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/genetics/rt-shcl.htm