Stem cell funds likely, post-Bush
By Anne C. Mulkern
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 05/07/2008 12:31:55 AM MDT
WASHINGTON - Seven years after President Bush blocked
most federal
funding of embryonic stem cell research, the
controversial science is
likely to get a fresh look from the next occupant of
the White House,
no matter who it is.
Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton both would
overturn Bush's
restrictions on the research, campaign officials for
the Democratic
primary contenders said Tuesday.
Presumptive GOP nominee John McCain's campaign did not
respond to
questions about how he would handle the issue as
president. But the
Arizona senator twice voted for legislation that would
have lifted
the limits Bush imposed.
That bill, based on one from Rep. Diana DeGette,
D-Colo., would have
allowed federal dollars to flow toward research on
stem cell lines
using embryos left over from in vitro fertilization,
slated for
disposal and donated by the parents.
Congress passed it twice. Bush vetoed it each time.
"I knew it was only a matter of time," DeGette said of
the likely
change.
"But I don't think anymore in this climate it's just
enough to
reverse the stem cell executive order."
DeGette on Thursday will chair a House subcommittee
hearing on stem
cell advances.
Because of those advances and partly to lay the
groundwork for a new
president, DeGette plans to introduce a new stem cell
bill. Among its
directives, the legislation will direct federal
researchers to launch
a "Manhattan Project"-type effort on all stem cell
research.
The Denver Democrat also wants the National Institutes
of Health to
create an ethics panel on the science.
DeGette plans to introduce the bill this year only to
gauge support,
not for passage. "After two vetoes, President Bush
will not sign my
bill," she said.
Opponents of the research, meanwhile, hold varying
degrees of
optimism that they might be able to prevent a
wholesale change in
Bush's policy.
"I'm hearing that people are talking to McCain about
his position,"
said Carrie Gordon Earll, spokeswoman for Colorado
Springs-based
Focus on the Family Action, a conservative
social-values advocacy
group.
Earll argues that McCain's support for DeGette's bill
is based on
faulty information. She cited his statements that the
embryos it
would have allowed research on would otherwise be
thrown out.
Earll argues there's at least one study showing that
most couples who
created the embryos don't plan to throw them out.
Other frozen
embryos are adopted, she said.
Moreover, Earll said, voters who oppose destroying
embryos for any
reason are important to a Republican nominee.
"I wouldn't be surprised if (McCain) said, 'I'm not
sure I've had
good information on this, and I want to rethink it,' "
Earll said.
Advocacy groups supporting a change in Bush's policy
say they believe
McCain as president at a minimum would sign
legislation similar to
DeGette's.
"We have no reason to believe he's backing off" his
support for the
type of changes sought in DeGette's bill, said Amy
Rick, president of
the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research.
"He has not
said anything to the contrary, and his support has
always been strong."
Opponents of embryonic stem cell research also are
grabbing onto
recent scientific advances that they say obviate the
need for
destroying embryos.
DeGette and others who support her, Earll said, "are
fixated on
ancient history when it comes to destroying embryos
for stem cell
research."
In one of the more dramatic new discoveries,
scientists last year
manipulated skin cells into cells with qualities
similar to embryonic
ones, which are prized because they can morph into any
other type of
cell.
DeGette argues that research is needed on all stem
cell types. Her
new bill, however, is meant in part to deal with
numerous scientific
achievements that have occurred since Bush's edict.
Many scientists agree that embryonic research is still
needed,
despite the new findings.
The discovery involving the skin cells could not be
used to treat
people because it potentially causes cancer, said Dr.
Evan Y. Snyder,
the director of the Stem Cell Research Center at the
Burnham
Institute in La Jolla, Calif.
In addition to gaining access to much more of the
NIH's budget
through a policy change, scientists would be able to
use new
embryonic lines, Snyder said.
Research eligible for federal dollars can be done only
on embryonic
stem cell lines created on or before Aug. 9, 2001.
Those are contaminated with mouse feeder cells, said
Dr. Curt Freed,
the director of the neurotransplantation program for
Parkinson's
disease at the University of Colorado Health Sciences
Center.
"The main thing that a change in policy will do would
be to allow NIH
to fund stem cells that could actually be put into a
person," Freed
said.
Penelope Catterall
Coordinator
CAMR
2021 K Street, NW Suite 305
Washington, D.C. 20006
202-725-0339
Rayilyn Brown
Board Member AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation
rbrown@xxxxxxxxx
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