• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Senate takes up stem cell bill; Bush vows veto

Posted on: Monday, 17 July 2006, 15:36 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category