Amid Veto Threat, Senate Poised To Weigh Trio of Stem-Cell Bills [WSJ]
By SARAH LUECK
July 12, 2006; Page A4
WASHINGTON -- Despite repeated veto threats, the Senate is likely to vote next week to send President Bush a bill to expand federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. But Mr. Bush may get a chance to seek political cover with an alternative measure promoting research that doesn't destroy embryos.
The debate brings political, religious and scientific concerns to the fore just before midterm elections. Advocacy groups and many scientists regard embryonic stem-cell research as a source of cures for illnesses and say more federal funding is the best way to tap its potential. Many conservatives and anti-abortion groups, say such research is wrong because it destroys human life, and that taxpayers shouldn't have to fund ethically suspect methods.
The House last year passed the bill the Senate is about to consider, which would ease limits Mr. Bush placed on federal funding of stem-cell research in 2001. Many Democratic backers of the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.), are eager to debate it and to paint Republican opponents as antiscience and out of touch with constituents. To counter that, some Republicans who oppose Mr. Specter's bill will instead vote for one offered by Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) that promotes stem-cell research methods that don't destroy embryos.
The White House plans to support Mr. Santorum's bill. Yesterday, House Republicans were preparing to bring it up in their chamber, with the goal of sending it to Mr. Bush in time for him to sign it into law while exercising the first veto of his presidency on Mr. Specter's bill. Backers of the Specter bill hold out hope that Mr. Bush will change his mind, but White House officials have said that won't happen. "The president is emphatic about this," Bush adviser Karl Rove told the Denver Post. Mr. Rove said the White House "would, frankly, like to avoid" the veto, but that he believes the legislation will pass the Senate with more than 60 votes.
Mr. Bush thinks "we don't need to choose between science and ethics. With the right policies in place we can have both," said White House spokesman Ken Lisaius. Mr. Specter's bill "crosses an important moral line that we have not crossed before," Mr. Lisaius said.
Even with the veto threat, supporters of expanding stem-cell research said passage of Mr. Specter's bill, which is co-sponsored by 41 other mostly Democratic senators, would be a triumph. "It is going to really illustrate a strong base of support," says Larry Soler, vice president of government relations for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), another supporter, said, "Gradually, this is an issue that can be won."
The Senate next week may take up three related stem-cell bills. Mr. Specter's bill would require the government to support research using human embryonic stem cells that meet certain conditions. The cells must have been obtained from embryos created for fertility treatments and in excess of what was needed for the treatment. The embryos also must be donated with the written consent of the individuals who sought the treatment. In effect, the legislation would undo Mr. Bush's 2001 decision to limit federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research to about 60 cell lines created before Aug. 9 of that year.
Mr. Santorum's bill would require the government to develop methods to create stem cells without harming human embryos. A spokesman for Mr. Santorum said the bill would help counter a "bias" in the scientific community against such alternative methods.
Supporters of Mr. Specter's bill said Mr. Santorum's bill isn't a true alternative. Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) pointed to recent testimony in the Senate by an official from the National Institutes of Health, who indicated that the government already has the authority to fund the research promoted by Mr. Santorum's bill. "From my point of view, the bill is meaningless," Mr. Durbin said. "This is not the real stem-cell bill. Anyone who thinks that it's political cover is mistaken."
The third bill the Senate will consider, also sponsored by Mr. Santorum, would prohibit "fetal farming," or the use by doctors of any fetal tissue obtained from a pregnancy established specifically for research. The White House is likely to support that measure too, and the House was preparing to bring it up quickly.
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