Democrats target stem cells

2007-01-10 12:55

Washington - The new Democrat-led congress this week geared for battle against federal financing limits on embryonic stem cell research set by the White House and its conservative allies on moral grounds.

Democrats, who took control of congress last Thursday for the first time in 12 years, plan to fire a legislative salvo exactly a week later which they expect will trigger a veto by President George W Bush.

The legislative offensive comes as news of promising US research in stem cells derived from amniotic fluid offered opponents of embryonic stem cell research a new argument in their defence of the financing limits.

In the house of representatives on Thursday, Democrat Diana DeGette and Republican Mike Castle were to introduce a measure seeking authorisation of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research.

The US senate was due to vote on an identical version of the house measure in the coming weeks.

The text was similar to one approved by the then-Republican-controlled congress in 2006 and vetoed by Bush, the only time he used the executive power in his six years in office.

Opponents of stem cell research - which many researchers say holds great promise in treating now-incurable diseases - welcomed a US study published on Sunday that showed stem cells derived from amniotic fluid could offer much the same potential as those taken from embryos.

'We don't have to split the nation...'

Researchers were able to manipulate the cells to create muscle, bone, fat, blood vessel, nerve and liver cells. Tested in mice, the stem cells repaired damage and grew replacement tissue.

"We don't have to split the nation on this if we have got an alternative," Phil Gingrey, a Republican congressman, gynecologist and adamant opponent of embryonic stem cell research, said in response to the study findings.

The Vatican, which condemns research on embryos as anti-life, on Monday hailed the amniotic fluid-based research as "morally acceptable".

But senator Tom Harkin, co-author of the senate bill with Republican Arlen Specter, argued on Tuesday that the new findings did not outweigh the need for embryonic research.

"Many opponents of our bill are now breathlessly touting this new study as if it makes all other forms of stem cell research irrelevant," Harkin said.

"The fact is, the new paper offers no evidence that amniotic stem cells have as much potential as embryonic stem cells to differentiate into all other cells in the human body."

Harkin warned against a hasty rush in favour of the newly published research.

Two-thirds majority need

"It would be irresponsible from a scientific perspective, and cruel to the millions of Americans who are suffering from diseases like juvenile diabetes, ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or motor neuron disease), Parkinson's and cancer, to abandon efforts to lift the president's arbitrary restrictions on embryonic stem cell research on the basis of a single new journal article."

Harkin said the co-author of the study, Dr Anthony Atala had sent a letter on Monday to the sponsors of the house measure saying "his study doesn't in any way diminish the need to pass the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act".

Bush decided in August 2001 to ban federal financing of research with new lines of stem cells from human embryos, limiting it to existing lines, which numbered about 60.

Yet the new offensive in congress against the funding restrictions appears destined for a second presidential veto, the bill's co-authors acknowledged on Tuesday.

And despite their strong majority, the Democrats do not have enough Republican allies backing the measure to muster the two-thirds majority need to override a presidential veto in both chambers of Congress.

- AFP