Stem cell laws and policy in the United States
In 1973, Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the United States. Five years later, the first successful human "in vitro" fertilization resulted in the birth of Louise Brown in England. These developments prompted the federal government to create regulations barring the use of federal funds for research that experimented on human embryos. In 1995, the NIH Human Embryo Research Panel advised the administration of President Bill Clinton to permit federal funding for research on embryos left over from "in vitro" fertility treatments and also recommended federal funding of research on embryos specifically created for experimentation. In response to the panel's recommendations, the Clinton administration, citing moral and ethical concerns, declined to fund research on embryos created solely for research purposes, but did agree to fund research on left-over embryos created by "in vitro" fertility treatments. At this point, the Congress intervened and passed the Dickey-Wicker Amendment in 1995 (the final bill, which included the Dickey Amendment, was signed into law by Bill Clinton) which prohibited any federal funding for the Department of Health and Human Services be used for research that resulted in the destruction of an embryo regardless of the source of that embryo. In 1998, privately funded research led to the breakthrough discovery of human Embryonic stem cells (hESC).
Juergen Hescheler
Hescheler has been working with embryonic stem cells ever since the late 1980s. Beginning with studies on cellular signal transduction, and starting with works on signalling pathways in different cells (g-protein phosphorylation, electrophysiology of channels) he focussed on embryonic stem cells and has since defined many important basic aspects of both fundamental research and clinical applications. He was the first scientist worldwide to perform electrophysiological and functional experiments on stem cells and differentiated phenotypes thereof. He achieved a first functional characterization of cardiomyocytes developed from embryonic stem cells which is an important prerequisite for their subsequent use in regenerative medicine. He thus pioneered the establishment of stem cell research for application in transplantation medicine. In 2002, he was among the first scientists in Germany to obtain permission to work with human embryonic stem cells. In his current position, as Chairman and Director to the Institute for Neurophysiology at the University of Cologne, his research areas include work on embryonic and adult stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells and germline pluripotent stem cells. Among progressing the use of stem cells for translational purposes, aiming at tapping the potential of stem cell biology towards clinical application, Hescheler actively promotes the vision of EPAA through innovative alternative testing strategies, applying stem cells towards toxicity testing. Apart from the rationale of promoting 3R principles it is his goal that coordinating a multidisciplinary research effort undertaken by various projects and consortia led by Hescheler will generate pathway- and evidence-based understanding of long-term toxic effects, thus moving toxicology from a rather descriptive science towards a more mechanistic-driven predictive one. 
Hescheler has been appointed coordinator of various European Consortia such as FunGenES, CRYSTAL, and more recently ESNATS and DETECTIVE. He is also coordinator of the BMBF consortium “iPS and adult bone marrow cells for cardiac repair”. In 2004 he founded and since chaired the German Society of Stem Cell Research (GSZ). He is an active member of the Scientific Panel of the AXLR8 Consortium and a member of steering committee of Stem Cell Network North Rhine Westphalia.