Denver Post Examines Outlook For Embryonic Stem Cell Research Policy Shift With Next President

Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 09 May 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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The Denver Post on Wednesday examined possible changes to federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research with the next president. According to the Post, stem cell research in the U.S. is "likely to get a fresh look" from the next president, "no matter who it is."

Campaign officials for both Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) on Tuesday said they would overturn President Bush's restrictions on federal funding for the research. Although Republican candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) did not respond to questions about the issue, he has voted twice in support for legislation that would lift Bush's restrictions, the Post reports (Mulkern, Denver Post, 5/7). Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research is allowed only for research using embryonic stem cell lines created on or before Aug. 9, 2001, under a policy announced by Bush on that date. Bush twice has vetoed bills that would have allowed federal funding for research using stem cells derived from human embryos originally created for fertility treatments and willingly donated by patients (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/29).

Embryonic stem cell research opponents "hold varying degrees of optimism" that Bush's policy will not be completely changed if McCain is elected president, the Post reports. Carrie Gordon Earll, spokesperson for Focus on the Family Action, a conservative social-values advocacy group said, "I wouldn't be surprised if (McCain) said, 'I'm not sure I've had good information on this, and I want to rethink it.'" However, some advocates who support changing Bush's policy said they believe McCain at the very least would sign legislation similar to the bills vetoed by Bush. "We have no reason to believe he's backing off" his support for the legislation, Amy Rick, president of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, said. She added that McCain "has not said anything to the contrary, and his support has always been strong."

Some opponents of the research are "grabbing onto" recent reports that researchers have reprogrammed mature adult human skin cells to produce embryonic-like stem cells, which could make destroying embryos unnecessary, according to the Post. However, many researchers said that embryonic stem cell research still is needed. Evan Snyder -- director of the Stem Cell Research Center at the Burnham Institute in La Jolla, Calif. -- said the reprogrammed skin cells currently could not be used to treat people because they could potentially cause cancer. Snyder supports changing the current policy because, in addition to gaining access to much more of NIH's budget, scientists would be able to use new embryonic lines. Curt Freed, director of the neurotransplantation program for Parkinson's disease at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, noted that the "main thing that a change in policy will do would be to allow NIH to fund stem cells that could actually be put into a person" (Denver Post, 5/7).

DeGette To Hold Hearing, Introduce Legislation Creating NIH Ethics Board

NIH Director Elias Zerhouni and other researchers are scheduled to appear Thursday at a House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing on embryonic stem cell research, CongressDaily reports. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), a sponsor of previous bills to lift the restrictions, said, "Every time there's a new discovery in some other type of research, the Bush administration and its allies say it's a substitute for embryonic stem cell research, so I really want to bring researchers to talk about how all of this research is complementary and [how] you can't take one type of research out of the equation."

DeGette and Rep. Michael Castle (R-Del.) in the next month plan to introduce legislation that would require NIH to create an ethical review board for all stem cell research. "There is no federal ethical oversight of any of this research that's going on, either by the states, by private companies or the limited amount that's going on with federal dollars," DeGette said. She said that the bill might garner more support than the measures vetoed by Bush, adding, "Even if we don't pass it this session of Congress, I want to be ready when we have a new president and a new Congress to pass legislation that both reverses the president's order and makes a new commitment to ethical cell-based research" (Edney, CongressDaily, 5/8).

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