c. 2007 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON _ The House on Thursday (Jan. 11) again voted to lift restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, sending the measure to the Senate and laying the groundwork for a second veto from President Bush.
The 253-174 vote came after an emotional debate in which proponents argued that Bush’s restrictions from 2001 are hindering the search for cures to spinal cord injuries and diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Opponents said the use of stem cells taken from human embryos amounts to the taking of human life.
The victory for the Democrats was largely symbolic since the vote was well short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a Bush veto. But with polls showing 70 percent public support for the science, the Democrats used their new House majority status to push the issue to the top of the agenda.
An undeterred White House restated Bush’s veto promise prior to the vote, saying the measure “would use federal taxpayer dollars to support and encourage the destruction of human life for research.”
The Senate is expected to take up and pass the legislation in a matter of weeks, but also is likely to fall short of the votes needed to override a veto. Both the House and Senate approved the same stem cell bill last year, and Bush stopped it with his first and only veto in July.
During the three-hour debate, Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., the bill’s sponsor, said Bush’s policy amounts to a “crippling ban on life-saving research” that “holds promise” for millions of suffering Americans.
Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., another supporter, accused Bush of “catering to the fringe of his party” in pursuing “a misguided policy.”
“Each day we wait to lift the ban is another day we waste in discovering new cures,” said Pallone.
But opponents argued that the taxpayers should not subsidize embryonic research when other stem cell alternatives are available.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said recent studies have suggested that nonembryonic stem cells found in bone marrow, umbilical cords and other tissues, as well as stem cells from amniotic fluid, also hold significant promise.
“The issue before us is not whether taxpayer dollars should subsidize stem cell research,” said Boehner. “The question is whether taxpayer dollars should be used to subsidize stem cell research that requires the destruction of precious human life.”
In August 2001, Bush issued an executive order saying federal funds could be used for research on embryonic stem cell lines only if they were already in existence at that time, kept alive and propagating in lab dishes. Bush said this would prevent destruction of new embryos. Scientists have found the policy restrictive, with only about 21 stem cell lines available for federally funded research.
The new legislation would allow the National Institutes of Health to fund research using newer stem cell lines from embryos donated for in-vitro fertilization that are considered surplus and would otherwise be discarded. The bill would require donors to provide written consent for use of the embryos, which are now stored at fertility clinics, and would ban the sale of embryos.
(Robert Cohen writes for The Star Ledger in Newark, N.J.)
KRE END COHEN
See related story, RNS-PLACENTA-CELLS, transmitted Jan. 12, 2007.
