New Stem Cell Guidelines Unveiled

The Obama administration stepped into the culture wars today by releasing new guidelines for government-backed stem cell research. The draft from the National Institutes of Health allows for a "vast expansion of the research" but draws the line at "allowing scientists to create human embryos for research purposes or pursuing cloning techniques," the Washington Post reports. "Administration officials took the more conservative approach largely for political reasons, rather than any particular scientific concern," according to the paper. The new rules, which will be finalized in three months, will open up hundreds of lines of stem cells that were under wraps during the Bush administration.