A long week in stem-cell politics...

摘要

Just days after US President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have significantly broadened federal funding for human embryonic stem-cell research, European Union ministers have given the green light to funding guidelines similar to the US proposal. In a cliffhanger decision on 24 July, the EU council agreed to the inclusion of ethically approved human embryonic stem-cell research in its next round of research funding. The ?50-billion (US$63-billion) seventh Framework Programme for research (FP7) is due to start in January 2007, and runs until 2013.