The collection consists of the proceedings of meetings held by the National Institute of Health's Human Embryo Research Panel, dating from February 1994 to June 1994. The Human Embryo Research Panel was established to provide the Director of the National Institutes of Health (Harold Varmus) with recommendations regarding human embryo research and guidelines for federal funding of such research.
The collection consists of records of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare's Ethics Advisory Board, which existed from 1978 to 1979.