Bush Backs Partial Stem Cell Funding
By Amy Goldstein and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 10, 2001; Page A01
President Bush last night announced the federal government will begin to pay for a limited amount of research on stem cells from human embryos, a politically charged decision that will move taxpayer money slowly into a controversial but promising field of medical inquiry.
In his first presidential address to the American people, Bush said federal grants may be used to conduct studies solely on stem cells that have been harvested from embryos left over at fertility clinics. But he prohibited subsidies of research that involved the creation or destruction of additional embryos.
The decision represents essentially the most restrictive use of federal money the administration could have permitted short of a ban.
Saying the decision placed him at a "difficult moral intersection," Bush, an opponent of abortion, told a television audience last night that research on stem cells "offers both great promise and great peril, so I have decided we must proceed with great care."
Far from resolving the controversy over the government's role in stem cell research, the president's decision is likely to prompt a fresh round of debate over science and morality on Capitol Hill as proponents of the research seek even more funding and opponents try to eliminate all subsidies.
By allowing even partial funding of research involving stem cells, Bush infuriated some conservatives who viewed any subsidies as a betrayal because the research involves the destruction of embryos, which they view as potential life. He drew measured praise from scientists, who were relieved that he had not forbidden federal funding in a field they say could lead to cures for many diseases. But they cautioned that Bush's limitations meant research would now move at a relatively slow pace.
The White House's strategy of disclosing the decision during an 11-minute prime-time speech – with a backdrop of the Texas prairie that Bush considers home – reflects the immense political stakes that a question of science policy has taken on for the administration and the Republican Party. The announcement's prominence is particularly striking because – apart from his first speech to Congress on his budget priorities in February – Bush has never given a televised address on issues such as tax cuts, education or other central goals of his young presidency.
In recent weeks, Bush's aides have been eager to demonstrate his personal agonizing over whether to permit government subsidies of this type of research. The issue has elicited an outpouring of conflicting advice to Bush from researchers, ethicists, politicians, lobbying groups and the famous – including former first lady Nancy Reagan and the pope. Even the president's most senior advisers have been divided. The president is said to have spent a portion of every working day on the issue for the past two months.
Last night, the president shared details of his decision-making process, describing "heartfelt letters" he received from ordinary Americans, as well as conflicting advice he collected from experts in various fields. "I have given this issue a great deal of thought, prayer and considerable reflection," he said. "And I have found widespread disagreement."
The stem cell controversy has created unusually intricate political fault lines. Public opinion polls indicate strong support for such research, even among a majority of Catholics, who are considered a crucial constituency if Bush is to win reelection in three years. Some prominent conservatives in the GOP have urged the president to allow subsidies, reasoning that the research holds the potential to reduce suffering from many diseases. But anti-abortion groups and other conservatives denounce such use of stem cells as a destruction of human life. The nation's religious community has been split.
Immediately after Bush's speech, several leading congressional Democrats criticized him for not opening the spigots of federal money wide enough. "Once again, the president has done the bare minimum in order to try and publicly posture himself with the majority of the Americans," said House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.). "But Americans know this is not the decision that the science community needs to go forward full force."
Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) was more muted, praising Bush for "a genuine willingness to embrace the concept . . . that the federal role in steering this research is a constructive one." But he, too, said he was concerned about the limits the president placed and predicted that "the Senate will want to take action."
Patient advocates and researchers sounded relieved that Bush had not imposed a ban, but were disappointed by the limits. "We are saddened that President Bush failed the leadership test and cast a shadow on the hopes of patients and the promise of science," said Dan Perry of the Alliance for Aging Research. He leads the patient-advocacy Coalition for Urgent Research.
Conservative Republicans and anti-abortion groups praised Bush for deciding not to pay for stem cell studies that involve the creation of new embryos for research, although they said they feared the president had created a precedent that would prove difficult to restrict in the future. "This initial research may ultimately serve as a pretext for vastly expanded research that does require the destruction of new living embryos," said House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.)
Stem cells can develop into many other types of tissue, which scientists believe could create new treatments for diabetes, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, and other afflictions. Researchers consider stem cells from embryos to be especially promising, although similar cells can be found in some adult tissues.
Bush said that, as he sorted through the intricacies of the choices he faced, he was guided primarily by two questions: "First, are these frozen embryos life and, therefore, something precious to be protected. And second, if they're going to be destroyed anyway, shouldn't they be used for a greater good, for research that has the potential to save and improve other lives."
"At its core," the president said, "this issue forces us to confront fundamental questions about the beginning of life and the ends of science."
The new policy will replace guidelines issued by the National Institutes of Health a year ago under the Clinton administration that would have allowed the first federal subsidies of human embryo cell research. Those rules did not permit the use of federal funds to destroy human embryos directly, but it would have allowed the government to sponsor studies involving stem cells taken from embryos by privately financed researchers. The policy said the embryos had to be slated for destruction at fertility clinics, frozen and used in research with donors' consent.
Bush's ground rules differ from the previous guidelines, which never went into effect, because they will permit research only on existing colonies of stem cells. The president said that 60 such colonies, or "lines," exist – many more than scientists acknowledge.
The president also said he would create a presidential council to oversee such research and named as its chairman Leon Kass, a conservative bioethicist from the University of Chicago.
Sean Tipton of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine said the group was "concerned about the nature and the composition of the task force." Kass was an early opponent of in vitro fertilization "and has not shown a lot of signs of movement since then," Tipton said.
In an interview after Bush's speech, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson, who had urged the president to allow subsidies during the administration's internal deliberations, said the panel will "review all of the ethical questions around stem cell lines and make advisory opinions."
NIH will review grant applications from scientists starting next year. During the past several weeks, NIH has contacted all the companies, organizations and individuals in the United States and other countries that possess the existing colonies of stem cells and secured promises to share their cells with government-subsidized researchers, Thompson said. It remained unclear how much money would be spent, but Thompson suggested it would be "several million" dollars.
A senior administration official said Bush's direction was clear after an Oval Office meeting with two bioethicists a few weeks ago. Bush signaled early this week that he had made a decision and was simply contemplating when and how to announce it.
Staff writers David Brown, Helen Dewar and Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company
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