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By Anne C. Mulkern
The Denver Post
05/07/2008
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.
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