Ethics and Policy
All research at the institute is undertaken in accordance with the highest ethical standards and guidelines. The Institute draws on the expertise of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics for guidance in addressing the ethical concerns surrounding embryonic and adult stem cell research. This guidance covers the broad implications of working with stem cells in both the lab and clinical context.
To further our understanding the ethical, legal, political, social and economic impacts of stem cell research, in 2006 Center for Biomedical Ethics established the Program on Stem Cells and Society. he program studies the broader issues of stem cell development, serves as a resource for others and provides educational outreach to students.
To ensure compliance with both state and federal law, Stanford University has established a university-wide policy governing embryonic stem cell research as well as an internal review board, known as the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Panel, to oversee its enforcement.
This panel ensures that Stanford complies with administrative rules instituted by the Bush administration in 2001 forbidding the use of federal funds to for human embryonic stem cell research using anything other than the few lines of human embryonic stem cell lines then in existence. Because there are severe limitation inherent to the use of these “approved” stem cell lines, Stanford researchers use funding from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and private sources to conduct research that cannot be supported with federal funds. Researchers are required to provide a detailed accounting of space, equipment and staff involved in any work they do with stem cell lines not approved by the federal government. As part of this effort, faculty, staff, post-docs, students and visiting scholars involved in embryonic stem cell research are required to undergo training.
