By Bob Roehr
The U.S. Senate passed a trio of bills affecting research with embryonic stem cells by comfortable margins on July 18. President George W. Bush has reiterated his vow to veto the most contentious of them. It would be his first presidential veto in the six years he has occupied the White House.
First up was the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006, which would 'prohibit the solicitation or acceptance of tissue from fetuses gestated for research purposes.' It passed unanimously. So too did the Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enforcement Act, which would promote 'techniques that do not knowingly harm embryos.'
Dissent came on the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, which would open up the President's policy that restrict research to two dozen embryonic stem cell lines that were created prior to August 2001, when the policy was announced.
The measure already had passed the House, and had overwhelming support in the Senate with bipartisan support in both chambers.
Much of the opposition has come from those who believe that life begins at the moment of conception and therefore an embryo, even prior to implantation in the uterus, is a human life. They see embryonic stem cell research as tantamount to abortion because that research destroys the cluster of embryonic cells.
Rick Santorum ( R-Pennsylvania ) is a leading foe of the bill. During debate on the floor of the Senate he said, 'Every life, whether it is in a suspended state in a [ fertility ] clinic or is standing on the floor of the US Senate…has meaning.'
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist ( R-Tennessee ) had supported the administration's policy for four years, but he broke with them last year. During debate he said, because the embryos in question are surpluses created in fertility clinics and destined to be disposed of, it makes sense, with proper protections, to allow them to be used to find cures for fatal diseases.
The heart surgeon said he dreamed of the day when his craft would no longer be needed and damaged hearts would be repaired through infusions of regenerative stem cells.
'I can only say, Mr. President, don't make the first veto you have ever made the veto which dashes these hopes,' urged Dianne Feinstein ( D-California ) .
The vote was pretty much a foregone conclusion; the bill passed on a vote of 63 to 37. One Democrat voted no while 19 Republicans voted yes. However, that tally is not sufficient to override a threatened presidential veto.
'The president believes strongly that for the purpose of research it's inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder; he's one of them,' said White House spokesman Tony Snow.
The Washington Post took on that argument, saying in a July 19 editorial, 'We don't understand the logic of Mr. Bush' position. If using discarded embryos to extract stem cells is murder, how can he permit it to proceed with private funding? If this is murder, isn't it also immoral to allow federal research on existing lines of embryonic stem cells, as the current administration policy permits, though they are the fruit of a homicidal act?'
The Bush policy only affects federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. It supports that research with a limited number of aging cell lines approved by NIH, and supports unlimited research on adult stem cells, which may or may not have similar restorative powers.
It also does not affect embryonic stem cell research conducted with other sources of funding. California operates the largest of several state programs supporting this research, while Harvard University is the leading privately funded group carrying out such research.
Perhaps Bush and his fundamentalist allies would feel differently if research suggested that embryonic stem cells might 'cure' homosexuality, or at least the desire of same-sex couples to marry.
