Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committees
The National Academies called for the establishment of Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight (ESCRO) Committees in its 2005 "Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research" to manage the ethical and legal concerns in human embryonic stem cell research. Because of the complexity and novelty of many of the issues involved in that research, the Guidelines committee believes that all research institutions engaged in human embryonic stem cell research should create and maintain these committees at the local level.
Political positions of Mitt Romney
When he ran for governor in 2002, Romney strongly advocated stem-cell research, and he promised to lobby then-President George W. Bush to embrace it. In 2007, Romney supported the use of stem cells obtained from "surplus embryos" for research, but opposed "the creation of new lines of human stem cells for research and vetoed a stem cell research bill as governor." During Romney's 2008 presidential campaign, he renounced his prior position and said that he agreed with Bush's decision to ban federal funding for research on excess embryos. He said that his views had been drastically altered in 2004 after discussing stem cell research with Douglas Melton, a stem cell researcher at Harvard University. The Harvard Stem Cell Institute was planning research that would have involved therapeutic cloning. According to Romney, Melton declared that the research "is not a moral issue because we kill the embryos at 14 days." "I looked over at Beth Myers, my chief of staff, and we both had exactly the same reaction, which is it just hit us hard," recalled Romney. "And as they walked out, I said, 'Beth, we have cheapened the sanctity of life by virtue of the "Roe v. Wade" mentality.'"