In this dialogue, Dr. Rebecca Franklin and Dr. Howard Chadwick, director of the National Center for Stem Cells within the (fictional) National Institutes of Health, discuss the ethics of cloning. The purpose of the National Center for Stem Cells is to help integrate regenerative medicine into the work of all the institutes. Chadwick is caught between a rock and a hard place with regard to embryonic stem cells: he recognizes their potential in science as well as the political firestorm they have produced. Here he and Franklin talk about the distinction between cloning human beings and using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) to create embryos for research; the distinction between therapeutic and reproductive cloning; and the issue of extracting embryonic germ cells from human embryos.