A July 15 article misstated the number of votes required to pass a Senate bill that would loosen President Bush's restrictions on research funding. By agreement, it will require 60 votes.
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Clash Over Stem Cell Research Heats Up
All told, the scientists concluded, there are only nine diseases that have been proved to respond to treatment with adult stem cells.
"By promoting the falsehood that adult stem cell treatments are already in general use for 65 diseases and injuries, Prentice and those who repeat his claims mislead laypeople and cruelly deceive patients," the scientists wrote.
Special Report
• Timeline of Stem Cell Debate |
Prentice, in a brief voice message left for a reporter as he embarked on a trip yesterday, said, "I appreciate them pointing out some of the things . . . that need to be changed and updated." But he accused the letter writers of "mental gymnastics" by focusing narrowly on proven therapies, as opposed to the large number of diseases for which the value of adult stem cells is now being tested.
Majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) announced this week that the Senate will debate the bill to loosen Bush's rules on Monday and vote on Tuesday. Under the terms of an agreement worked out with Democrats, the bill will need 67 ayes to pass, a count most observers believe will be achieved.
The Senate will also vote on two other bills -- one aimed at preventing abuses in fetal research and one encouraging a search for non-embryonic stem cells that might have the same healing potential as embryonic cells.
Both bills are expected to pass easily and to be taken up and passed by the House on Wednesday and Thursday, congressional aides said. At that point, President Bush would be free to follow up on his oft-repeated promise to veto the bill that would loosen his rules.
That could come as early as Thursday, the aides said, and would constitute the first veto of Bush's presidency.
The House could follow by Friday with an attempt to override that veto. Current head counts suggest that an override attempt in the House would fail. If so, the bill would be dead without the Senate having to reconsider the issue.
Last week, the two leaders in the effort to loosen Bush's rules -- Reps. Michael N. Castle (R-Del.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) -- sought an audience with Bush as part of a last-ditch effort to persuade him not to veto the measure.
Last Friday, they said they were told he would not have time.
