31.   Cohen was spurred, he said, by the New Jersey case, in which a divorcing wife wanted embryos destroyed and the husband objected.

32.   Current law prohibits federal money from being used for research that would destroy human embryos, but does not directly refer to stem cell research.

33.   Embryonic stem cells are controversial, however, because they are derived by destroying embryos, which some people see as human life.

34.   Embryos are destroyed as the result of in vitro fertilization, said Michael Soules, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, which represents fertility clinics.

35.   Embryos are destroyed routinely by the millions in the natural process of human reproduction.

36.   Embryos are destroyed when stem cells are extracted.

37.   Extracting a batch of cells, however, destroys the embryo they came from.

38.   He also said there are at least eight other areas of research that could be used to produce therapeutic tissues without having to destroy human embryos.

39.   Hatch, senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that destroying embryos that have not been implanted is not tantamount to abortion.

40.   He raised a question about whether in efforts to clone humans, would human embryos be destroyed or discarded?