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House to Resume Stem Cell Debate
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Whatever the effect of the discovery on the policy debate, Bush is all but certain to cast a second veto of the embryonic stem cell bill if it reaches his desk.
White House spokesman Tony Snow on Monday stopped short of issuing an endorsement of the amniotic process, but he made clear that Bush views it favorably.
"Obviously, there is a difference between using amniotic stem cells that do not, by design, involve the destruction of a human life, and embryonic stem cell research, which does," Snow told reporters.
Co-sponsored by DeGette and Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., the legislation would lift Bush's 2001 ban on federal dollars spent on deriving new stem cells from fertilized embryos. Bush cast the lone veto of his presidency against an identical stem cell bill six months ago, saying he did not want to destroy life in the name of science.
The House is not expected to muster the two-thirds majority to override a veto. The Senate, expected to take up the bill in a few weeks, may be a handful of votes away from that veto-proof threshold.
Embryonic stem cells are able to morph into any of the more than 220 cell types that make up the human body. They typically are culled from fertility-clinic leftovers otherwise destined to be thrown away. But because the culling kills the embryos, Bush on Aug. 9, 2001, restricted government funding to research using only the embryonic stem cell lines then in existence, groups of stem cells kept alive and propagating in lab dishes.
But there are only about 21 of those lines available for study, most created in ways that preclude use in humans. At least 300 more lines now are available that many scientists insist are better suited for implantation into sick people.
The new legislation would allow the National Institutes of Health to fund research using those already existing, newer stem cell lines.
The bills are H.R. 3 and S.5.
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Associated Press Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
Congress: http:/
Wake Forest University Institute for Regenerative Medicine:
Nature Biotechnology article:
