WASHINGTON (ABP) — By another large — but not veto-proof — margin, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that would loosen restrictions on government funding for embryonic stem-cell research.
Meanwhile, the contentious debate over stem-cells took another turn in recent days with the publication of a study that noted stem cells taken from amniotic fluid offer almost as much potential for research as embryonic cells.
On Jan. 11, the House passed the “Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007” on a 253-174 vote. That is 37 votes short of the two-thirds majority it would take to override a veto by President Bush. Last year, he used the first veto of his presidency on a nearly identical bill.
At the time, Bush said, “If this bill were to become law, American taxpayers for the first time in our history would be compelled to fund the deliberate destruction of human embryos. Crossing this line would be a grave mistake and would needlessly encourage a conflict between science and ethics that can only do damage to both and harm our nation as a whole.”
The new bill, like the old one, would greatly expand the government's ability to fund embryonic stem-cell research. Biologists prize the cells because they can replicate themselves and have the potential to grow into almost any kind of human tissue. Therefore, they may one day be used to replace cells destroyed by diseases such as Parkinson's.
Most conservative religious and anti-abortion groups oppose such research, because embryos are destroyed in the process of extracting their stem cells. In one of his first acts after he took office in 2001, Bush issued an executive order severely limiting federal funding for such research.
The new bill would mostly undo that order, and has proven very popular among voters. The bill is also expected to pass the Senate. Leaders in both chambers are mulling strategies for forcing Bush to compromise on the issue.
Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.), the latest bill's House author and one of 37 House Republicans to vote for it, said the vote was encouraging. “It is clear that a majority of the House, just like a majority of Americans, back potentially life-saving stem-cell research,” he said in a statement after the vote.
Castle noted that the research would only be conducted on frozen embryos often left over from fertility treatments, which are routinely destroyed anyway. “The decision to discard the embryo, which will be used for the research, will already have been made and only then can a couple donate an embryo for research,” he said.
Opponents of such research, who believe it is tantamount to abortion, pointed to recently publicized techniques involving other sorts of stem cells that don't require destruction of embryos.
“Most Americans support stem-cell research, and most greatly prefer that this research advance without harming or destroying human life at any stage,” said a statement from Richard Doerflinger, a pro-life official with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “The truly statesmanlike approach to this issue would be to take up this challenge, supporting medical progress that all Americans can live with.”
Studies in the past two years have shown increased potential for curing diseases in stem cells extracted from adult tissue. Scientists from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine announced Jan. 7 that cells readily available in the amniotic fluid that is routinely and harmlessly extracted in pre-natal testing can grow into brain, muscle and other tissues that could fight disease.
However, some medical experts cautioned that such research is much less farther along the path of curing crippling and lethal diseases than that provided by embryonic stem-cell research.
The bill is H.R. 3.
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