In September 2003, the President’s Council on Bioethics issued a working paper on regulation of various biotechnologies.

Although there may have been some changes in fed regs since then, I nonetheless believe that the basic findings of this paper still hold. (President Obama has since issued supersessionary guidelines on federal funding for hESC research in July 2009, but the practical effects of these new guidelines remain to be seen.)

In any case, I recommend checking out the various background materials on the PCBE website. Solid stuff.