US president Bush has said he will veto the bill (legislation S5) passed by a 247 to 176 vote in the House of Representatives that would allow federal funding of stem cell research using human embryos.
The bill was passed by the Senate in April. This is the second time Bush has used his executive power to veto legislation on stem cell research.
In a statement released from Heiligendamm in Germany where he is attending the G8 summit, Bush said:
“If this bill were to become law, American taxpayers would for the first time in our history be compelled to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos.
” A presidential veto can be overturned by a two thirds majority in each house of Congress, but many people think that is unlikely to happen despite the fact the Democrats took charge of both houses last year.
The Democrats have promised they will continue to push for legislation to ease restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Opponents are against embryonic stem cell research because they regard it in the same way as abortion, as destroying human lives. They say there are other ways to do research without using human embryos and new methods are emerging all the time.
For example, scientists in the US and Japan have shown it may be possible to create stem cells that are just as good as embryonic stem cells more quickly and at less cost by using fibroblasts found in skin (click here for a recent article on this.).
Supporters of embryonic stem cell research disagree, saying alternatives to embryos are no substitute for the types of stem cells that can be used to develop treatments for degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Also, they point out that the bill would only allow the use of excess embryos from fertility treatments which are destined to be discarded anyway. Some people who oppose abortion support embryonic stem cell research for this reason (for example Senator Orrin Hatch).
Stem cells are undifferentiated “master” cells that have the potential to become any cell in the body. They also have genes that switch on other genes.
There are three kinds of stem cells used in research, embryonic stem cells (taken from 5 day old embryos; this process destroys the embryo), adult stem cells (taken from adult organs) and cord blood stem cells (taken from the umbilical cord shortly after birth).
Many doctors and scientists would agree, putting the ethical issues aside for a moment, that embryonic stem cells show the most promise for developing therapeutic treatments.
The ethical arguments are complex. For example, it is not just about whether embryos constitute human lives or not; embryonic stem cell research also involves making human clones where the embryo’s DNA is replaced by the patient’s DNA in order to produce stem cells tailored to that patient. So, albeit for a short time, the embryo in effect becomes a clone of the patient.
Bush issued an executive order in 2001, the year he came to power, to stop federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. He did not block the use of embryos from pre-existing stem cell lines, some of which were viable for research.
Bush has said he would be prepared to support stem cell research using stem cells taken from cord blood, amniotic fluid, placentas and embryos that have died of natural causes.
Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today