WASHINGTON (ABP) — A large, bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives has defied President Bush, Republican leaders and some conservative interest groups by passing a bill that would expand federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research.
But Bush promised to use the first veto of his presidency to kill the bill, citing concern that it would use taxpayer dollars to fund what he believes amount to abortions.
On May 24, the House passed the “Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act” by a vote of 238-194. The majority included 50 Republicans, including many who had strong anti-abortion voting records. Only 14 Democrats crossed the aisle to vote against the bill.
The vote came after a debate that lasted well into the evening, and was far more impassioned and personal than most in Congress. Perhaps reflecting the complex ethical issues involved, it did not always break down along traditional party or ideological lines.
“I come to the floor as a 100 percent lifetime voting member on pro-life issues, minus one vote, in over 21 years,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas). “So that is not a bad record, 100 percent minus one. And after this vote today, I am going to be 100 percent minus two.”
Barton explained that he had lost a father to diabetes, a brother to liver cancer and his first granddaughter was stillborn due to an umbilical cord condition. “Maybe the research we are debating today could not have helped any of those diseases or could not have helped my granddaughter,” he said, “but maybe it could.”
Opponents of the bill said embryonic stem-cell research is tantamount to murder because the embryos used are destroyed in the process.
“The worst mistakes we've ever made in the history of this nation have been when we have defined a part of the human family as less than fully human, and done things to them that we would not allow done to ourselves,” said Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.). “We've done it with slavery; we've done it with the Tuskegee medical experiments” on African-American men.
President Bush announced Aug. 9, 2001 — in the first prime-time television address of his presidency — that he would limit federal funding for stem-cell research to $100 million and limit the scope of that federal research to “lines” of embryos that already existed in laboratories.
The cells, harvested from five-day-old embryos, have the potential to grow into many different kinds of tissue. Scientists hope that continued study on the cells will enable the creation of replacement tissues that can be used to treat or even cure many debilitating and terminal conditions, such as Parkinson's disease or spinal-cord injuries.
But many researchers say the federal funding needs to be expanded, because the stem-cell lines Bush limited it to have proven to be less-than-useful for research with human subjects.
Anti-abortion activists oppose embryonic stem-cell research because, under current procedures, harvesting the cells destroys the embryos. They also point to other types of treatments — discovered from research on adult stem cells and on cells from umbilical cords — that also hold potential for curing diseases.
But the adult stem-cell treatments have worked for a limited number of diseases, many mainstream scientists say. Embryonic stem cells, however, have a larger potential to grow into different types of tissue.
House Republican leaders who opposed the stem-cell bill attempted to contrast it with another bill that would set up a network of centers for stem cells derived from umbilical-cord blood. While several treatments have been produced with such cells, so far they have only been for diseases of the blood.
But support for the “Stem Cell Research and Therapeutic Act” and the embryonic stem-cell bill proved not to be an either-or proposition for most House members. The cord-blood bill passed the chamber on a 431-1 vote.
The embryonic stem-cell bill also enjoys bipartisan support in the Senate. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), asked about the bill's hopes in that chamber during a May 25 press conference, said, “I would hope that we would do exactly what the House did.”
But Bush, speaking at a White House event shortly before the bill's passage, reiterated his already stated opposition to it. “This bill would take us across a critical ethical line by creating new incentives for the ongoing destruction of emerging human life,” he said. “Crossing this line would be a great mistake.”
Bush appeared with children who had been “adopted” as frozen embryos. The stem-cell bill would provide that the research be done only on embryos left over from fertility treatments, with permission of the parents. Those embryos otherwise would be destroyed.
Opponents of embryonic stem-cell research point to the ability for parents to donate those embryos to couples willing to use them. “The children here today remind us that there is no such thing as a spare embryo,” Bush said. “Every embryo is unique and genetically complete, like every other human being.”
But only a couple of hundred of such embryo adoptions have taken place, while hundreds of thousands of frozen embryos left over from fertility treatments exist.
Reid noted that polls consistently show the majority of the public supports embyronic stem-cell research. “President Bush is wrong politically, morally and scientifically” on the issue, he said.
The vote, while overwhelming, would not provide a veto-proof majority. A conservative House Republican who voted for the bill, Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier of California, reportedly has said he'd like to work out a compromise with Bush rather than force a veto showdown.
The House version of the bill was H.R. 810. The Senate version is S. 471.