Senate takes up stem cell bill; Bush vows veto

By Joanne Kenen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With President George W. Bush
threatening his first veto, the Senate opened debate on Monday
on a bill to expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell
research beyond the narrow limits set by the president in 2001.

Advocates of expanded federally funded research, including
Nancy Reagan, the widow of former President Ronald Reagan who
had Alzheimer’s disease, say the science holds enormous
potential for new cures and treatments for a host of diseases,
including diabetes, Parkinson’s and spinal-cord injury.

Yet the research is politically volatile and ethically
sensitive because extracting the cells involves the destruction
of a human embryo.

Bush, who is against abortion, has vowed to veto the bill,
possibly as soon as on Wednesday, a day after the Senate is
expected to pass it. The White House repeated on Monday that
Bush opposes using “federal taxpayer dollars to support and
encourage the destruction of human life for research.”

Advocates say the new legislation would allow the expanded
research only on leftover embryos from fertility clinics that
would otherwise be destroyed.

“It really is the right to life,” California Democrat Sen.
Dianne Feinstein said of the scientific promise.

Bush in 2001 allowed federally funded research on 78 stem
cell lines already in existence. But only about 20 proved
useful for researchers, who complain they need more lines and
that those available are unsuitable for use in human beings.

Under an unusual agreement struck by Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican who broke with Bush on stem
cells, the Senate took up a package of three-linked bills, all
of which are expected to get the 60 votes required for passage.

MORALLY CHALLENGING

The embryonic bill passed the House but short of the needed
two-thirds vote to override a veto.

Frist, a potential 2008 presidential contender, opposes
abortion, but said the White House policy “unduly restricts”
the cells available to researchers.

“I believe that embryonic stem cell research and adult stem
cell research should be federally funded within a carefully
regulated, fully transparent, fully accountable framework,
ensuring the highest level of respect for the moral
significance of the human embryo,” Frist said.

Bush backs the other two bills, which the House plans to
take up later this week.

One would ban “fetus farming,” prohibiting anyone from
implanting an embryo in the womb of a woman or animal for the
purpose of extracting cells or tissue.

The other promotes alternative forms of stem cell research
that do not entail destroying an embryo. Most senators say they
will vote for the bill, but some Democrats say legislation is
designed to give political cover for conservative Republicans
because that research is already taking place.

Sean Tipton, president of the Coalition for the Advancement
of Medical Research, which is pushing for embryonic stem cell
research, said backing only the alternative bill “is an
indefensible position for stalling progress in treating and
curing diseases.”

Conservative Republicans who back the alternative research
and oppose the House-passed bill say advocates of the embryonic
stem cell research are overstating its promise and ignoring the
value of other research they say is less morally challenging.

“Embryonic stem cell research, which has not delivered any
peer-reviewed treatments or human clinical trials, is immoral
and unnecessary because of the much greater promise and track
record of adult and cord blood stem cell research,” Kansas
Republican Sam Brownback said.

Stem cell experts say they want to pursue all avenues of
research, and not favor one over the other.