Institution
National Bioethics Advisory Commission
ABP-I-0014
Overview
Executive Order 12975 established the National Bioethics Advisory Commission in 1995 as genetics, cloning, and other biomedical developments pressed federal agencies for ethical guidance. The Commission first met in 1996 and continued through a period of rapid debate about research involving human participants and human biological materials.
Its reports addressed cloning, research involving people with mental disorders, stem-cell research, international clinical trials, and protections for human participants. Among them were Cloning Human Beings (1997), Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research (1999), and two 2001 reports on international research and human-participant protections.
Historical Role
NBAC provided a federal forum for controversies that joined emerging biotechnology to older concerns about research oversight. It was a separate commission, neither a continuation of the National Commission nor the later President's Council.
Historical Significance
A 1990s federal advisory body whose reports brought new biomedical technologies and research-protection questions into national policy debate.
Key facts
- ABP identifier
- ABP-I-0014
- Dates
- 1995–2001
- Location
- Washington, DC