Dickey Wicker Amendment Redux: Making Distinctions in the Name of Scientific Progress

The American Journal of Bioethics
March 2011

In 1996 Congress passed the Dickey-Wicker Amendment as part of an appropriations bill; it has been renewed every year since. The amendment bans federal funding for research using embryos and parthenotes.

An article in the March 2011 edition of The American Journal of Bioethics calls for a public discussion on parthenote research and a questioning of its inclusion in the amendment.

The authors argue that the scientific difference between embryos and parthenotes translates into ethical differences, and claim that research on parthenotes is much less ethically problematic.

Podcast: Remove Rider on Parthenotes, Lisa Campo Engelstein, The Bioethics Channel, March 18