Bush backs stem-cell research
2001-08-10 12:01
Crawford, Texas - President George W Bush announced on Thursday that he will allow federally funded research on embryonic stem cells on a strictly limited basis in a compromise decision that kicked off a debate over whether he had gone too far or not far enough.
"I have made this decision with great care, and I pray it's
the right one," Bush said as he ended months of sometimes
agonising soul searching over how to handle the politically
divisive issue.
In his first nationally televised address, Bush sought a middle ground between those who believe stem-cell research can lead to medical advances in a variety of illnesses against those opposed to any research that destroys human embryos.
Bush said he would allow US federal funds to be spent
only on the 60-or-so stem cell lines that exist worldwide whose
embryos have already been destroyed, meaning there is no chance
of life emerging from them.
"I have concluded that we should allow federal funds to be
used for research on these existing stem cell lines where the
life and death decision has already been made," Bush said from
his Prairie Chapel ranch where he is on a month-long vacation.
Stem cells are primitive cells which have the ability to
transform themselves into many other types of cells. They offer
the potential of regenerating damaged organs or tissue. A stem
cell lines is a reservoir of stem cells derived from a single
human embryo.
Many scientists believe stem cells offer tantalising hope
to millions of Americans in treating brain maladies like
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, as well as diabetes,
heart attacks, strokes and spinal injuries.
Laying out strict limitations, the White House said federal
funds will only be used on research on existing stem cell lines
that were derived with the informed consent of the donors and
from excess embryos created solely for reproductive purposes,
and without any financial inducements to the donors.
"Embryonic stem cell research offers both great promise and
great peril, so I have decided we must proceed with great
care," Bush said in a speech that tried to show how deeply he
had studied the issue.
Many lines are overseas
Fewer than 10 such stem-cell lines - self-replenishing
colonies of cells because they have the ability to regenerate
themselves indefinitely - are in the United States. The rest
are in Australia, Singapore, India, Israel and Sweden, a top
Bush aide said.
Some experts in the stem-cell field expressed surprise
there were as many as 60 such lines and, since many were
privately held, questioned whether they could be used for
general research.
Bush did not allow what many scientists wanted, approval to
harvest stem cells from some of the 100 000 embryos frozen in
fertility clinics. Scientists say this would accelerate the
search for cures to diseases once thought untreatable.
Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy called Bush's
decision "an important step forward," but that it does not go
far enough "to fulfill the life-saving potential of this
promising new medical researchö.
Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota
expressed concerns about the limits Bush placed on the research
and said the Senate will want to take action. He had warned
earlier he would seek to enact legislation permitting broader
research if Bush's proposal fell short.
In what amounted to a defining moment for Bush's six-month
presidency, Bush returned time and again during his 10-minute
speech to the moral and scientific implications of allowing
research into embryonic stem cells.
Sitting in front of a window with a view of the prairie
behind him, Bush talked at length of the pros and cons of each
side, seeking to reassure Americans he had thought through the
implications of stem-cell research.
Recalls Huxley book
"As the genius of science extends the horizons of what we
can do, we increasingly confront complex questions about what
we should do. We have arrived at that brave new world that
seemed so distant in 1932, when Aldous Huxley wrote about human
beings created in test tubes in what he called a hatchery,"
Bush said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, a
support of federally funded stem-cell research, said Bush's
decision was not based on "rigid lines of ideology, nor is it
based on unrealistic expectations that science might or might
not be able to fulfill. It keeps the door open and allows us to
move forward in a careful and measured mannerö.
Religious conservatives have argued that a compromise like
Bush announced would still mean profiting from the killing of
human embryos, leading to a "culture of deathö. In that sense
Bush's decision could alienate some Catholics and core
conservative supporters on the Christian right who were crucial
to his narrow election victory last year.
"The trade-off he has announced is morally unacceptable ...
the president's policy may ... prove as unworkable as it is
morally wrong, ultimately serving only those whose goal is
unlimited embryo research," said Bishop Joseph A Fiorenza,
president of the US Conference on Catholic Bishops.
Bush said $250 million in federal funds in the coming year
would be spent to research placenta, animal and adult stem
cells. Adult cells are those harvested from the bone marrow and
brain tissue of children and adults that some scientists say do
not offer as much promise as the embryonic stem cells.
The White House said no federal funds would be allowed for
use of stem cells from newly destroyed embryos, the creation of
any human embryos for research purposes or the cloning of any
embryos for any purpose.
Bush said he will create a new President's Council on
Bioethics, chaired by Dr Leon Kass, a biomedical ethics expert
from the University of Chicago, to study the human and moral
ramifications.
The US biotechnology industry expressed relief at Bush's
decision.
"I think it was a very good, clear, balanced outcome," said Carl Feldbaum, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organisation, that represents about 1000 biotechnology companies.