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[DOCID: f:h2863ih.txt]






107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2863

 To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish and 
 maintain a panel to provide expert scientific recommendations in the 
                       field of cell development.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 6, 2001

  Mr. McDermott (for himself and Mr. Evans) introduced the following 
    bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish and 
 maintain a panel to provide expert scientific recommendations in the 
                       field of cell development.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Cell Development Research Act of 
2001''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning 
        offer tremendous promise for developing cures for some of 
        life's most devastating diseases and disabilities, including 
        Parkinson's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease, Huntington's chorea, 
        paralysis, blindness, diabetes, and spinal cord injury.
            (2) Studying the first days and the first cell divisions of 
        a human embryo would lead to a greater understanding of normal 
        and abnormal human development and of the potential for 
        developing therapies for congenital abnormalities.
            (3) Techniques such as preimplantation genetic diagnosis 
        can identify embryos that are destined to develop devastating 
        recessive diseases, such as Fanconi's anemia and Tay-Sachs 
        disease.
            (4) The Food and Drug Administration has jurisdiction over 
        certain human tissue transplantation and cloning.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF CELL DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY PANEL.

    Subsection (n) of section 505 of the Federal Food, Drug, and 
Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 355(n)) is amended by adding at the end the 
following:
            ``(9) Cell development advisory panel.--
                    ``(A) Establishment.--The Secretary shall establish 
                and maintain under this subsection a single panel in 
                the Food and Drug Administration to provide expert 
                scientific advice and recommendations to the Secretary 
                in the field of cell development, including advice and 
                recommendations regarding any clinical investigation of 
                a drug developed as a result of research in the field 
                of embryology and any approval for marketing of such a 
                drug under this section or section 351 of the Public 
                Health Service Act.
                    ``(B) Promotion of research.--Such panel shall make 
                policy recommendations with the goal of promoting 
                research in the field of cell development.
                    ``(C) Prohibition.--Such panel shall not make any 
                recommendation regarding the practice of fertility 
                medicine.
                    ``(D) Field of cell development.--For purposes of 
                this paragraph, the term `field of cell development' 
                includes embryonic stem cell research, therapeutic 
                cloning, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, and early 
                developmental biology.''.
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