President George Bush entered the debate on stem cells in 2001, when he made an address to the nation on stem cell research. He said:

"As a result of private research, more than sixty genetically diverse stem cell lines already exist. They were created from embryos that have already been destroyed, and they have the ability to regenerate themselves indefinitely, creating ongoing opportunities for research. I have concluded that we should allow federal funds to be used for research on these existing stem cell lines, where the life and death decision has already been made."

President Bush prohibited subsidies for research that involved the creation or destruction of additional embryos. Of course, research on embryonic stem cells continues in private labs in the United States and around the world. (Great Britain, for example, expressly allows stem cell research.) President Bush gave support and committed federal funding to research on umbilical cord, placenta, adult, and animal stem cells, and named a president's council to monitor stem cell research, to recommend appropriate guidelines and regulations, and to consider all of the medical and ethical ramifications of biomedical innovation.

In September 2002, Governor Gray Davis of California signed bill SB 253 into law. It is the first law in the United States that expressly permits stem cell research and allows for both the destruction and the donation of embryos. The law specifies fertility clinics as the only source for embryos to be used in research. Davis simultaneously signed a bill that permanently bans all human cloning in the state for reproductive purposes—that is, any effort to create a cloned individual.