By CHRISTIE L. CHICOINE
CS&T Staff Writer
and Jerry Filteau
Catholic News Service
President George W. Bush vetoed a bill June 20 to expand federal funding
for medical research on human embryonic stem cells, saying it “would
compel American taxpayers, for the first time in our history, to support
the deliberate destruction of human embryos.”
Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’
Committee on Pro-Life Activities, praised the veto.
“This bill would not actually enhance stem-cell research, but divert
federal funds from legitimate research toward avenues requiring the destruction
of innocent human life,” the Cardinal said. “The cause of
science is not enhanced, but diminished when it loses its moral compass.”
Along with his veto, Bush issued an executive order calling on federal
agencies to strengthen the nation’s commitment to research on pluripotent
stem cells.
[Adult stem cells from a variety of sources — including bone marrow,
the placenta and umbilical-cord blood — have been used in successful
treatments for a number of diseases. They are called “pluripotent”
because they have the power to turn into many of the 200-plus types of
differentiated cells found in the body. Embryonic stem cells are called
“omnipotent” because they can turn into any of those differentiated
cells.]
Cardinal Rigali welcomed the executive order.
“Adult stem cells continue to produce new clinical advances on a
regular basis, most recently showing benefits for patients with juvenile
diabetes,” the Cardinal said.
He said a recent research breakthrough has shown that stem cells from
cord blood and amniotic fluid, and the reprograming of ordinary adult
cells to become pluripotent stem cells, demonstrate that science not only
raises new ethical questions but at times can help address them.
“Tragically, some embryonic stem-cell advocates in Congress have
dismissed such advances, or even greeted them with suspicion, as though
medical progress were less genuine or praiseworthy when it respects early
human life,” the Cardinal said. “I urge them to follow the
President’s lead on this issue, by promoting research and therapies
that everyone can live with.”
The vetoed bill was titled the Stem-Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007.
It passed in the Senate April 11 by a 63-34 vote, and in the House June
7 by a vote of 247-176. Neither vote reflected the two-thirds majority
that would be needed to override a veto.
U.S. Sen. Robert P. Casey (D-Pa.) voted against the bill. U.S. Sen. Arlen
Specter (R-Pa.) voted for it.
The day before the House voted to relax the funding restrictions on human
embryonic research, Cardinal Rigali had urged it to defeat the bill.
In a letter to all House members, he said: “Embryonic stem-cell
research has been as disappointing in its results as it has been divisive
to our society. Pursuit of this destructive research will almost certainly
require you to embrace more and more egregious violations of moral norms
in the effort to bring its ‘promise’ to fruition.”
Ethically sound research using non-embryonic stem cells has continued
to advance, helping patients with more than 70 conditions in clinical
trials, he added.
“Since Congress debated this issue last summer, further evidence
has emerged on the versatility of adult stem cells and on the ability
of adult cells to be reprogrammed to rival the flexibility of embryonic
cells,” the Cardinal added.
Regional pro-life advocates in Pennsylvania also weighed in on the veto.
Edel Finnegan, executive director of the Pro-Life Union of Southeastern
Pennsylvania, was elated by the veto.
“We’re thrilled that President Bush has followed through and
remained consistent” on the issue, she said. “He’s accused
often of being stubborn. We appreciate his stubbornness on this issue.”
Regarding embryonic stem cell research, Finnegan added: “What cures
have been found? Who’s been helped by destroying human embryos?
No one has.”
Further, Finnegan said, “Even if they found a cure for every disease
by destroying human embryos, it wouldn’t make it morally correct
— because you can’t destroy one life in an attempt to save
another. …
“God would never want us to use an immoral way to help other people,”
she said. “Even though it’s hard for the human mind to comprehend
it, or even the human heart to accept it, the end would never justify
the means.”
Finnegan, a member of Annunciation B.V.M. in Havertown, added: “Wherever
life is threatened, the pro-life union will be found, making an argument
to defend it.”
Robert J. O’Hara, executive director of the Pennsylvania Catholic
Conference, commented, “We are gratified and encouraged that President
Bush and enough members of Congress had the courage to stand up against
the ongoing congressional attempt to violate basic moral principles by
exploiting innocent human beings for research.”
He noted that in addition to federal money spent since 2001, “numerous
states have put their own tax dollars into embryonic stem cell research.
Large sums of public money in other countries, and untold private money,
have been spent on this unproven technology. So far there has been no
progress beyond animal trials.”
At the same time, he said regarding adult stem cell research, “There
is real promise with this emerging field of medicine. … If there
are tax dollars available, why not put them into more promising research
that is not morally objectionable?”
Democratic leadership had made the bill a top priority when the Democrats
gained control of Congress this year. It would have ended the Bush administration’s
six-year policy limiting federal funding for human embryonic stem-cell
research to projects that relied only on colonies of embryonic stem cells
created before Aug. 9, 2001, the date that policy was announced.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean sharply criticized
the veto.
“Bush once again put political posturing ahead of sound science,
turning his back on the overwhelming majority of Americans who support
stem-cell research and the 100 million Americans suffering from debilitating
diseases who could benefit from this life-saving science,” Dean
said.
U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) who is a contender for the Democratic
presidential nomination next year, accused Bush of putting “ideology
before science [and] politics before the needs of our families.”
To that charge, White House spokesman Tony Snow responded: “This
actually is putting science before ideology. There are many people who
believe that you have to force taxpayers into making a choice of destroying
human life.”
Snow added, “The president does not believe it’s appropriate
to put an end to human life for research purposes. That’s a line
he will not cross.”
In his veto message to the Senate, Bush said that, since 2001, his administration
“has made more than $130 million available for research on stem-cell
lines derived from embryos that had already been destroyed. We have also
provided more than $3 billion for research on all forms of stem cells,
including those from adult and other non-embryonic sources.”
The president’s new executive order directs the Department of Health
and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to ensure
that any human pluripotent stem-cell lines produced in ways that do not
create, destroy or harm human embryos will be eligible for federal funding.
It expands the NIH’s Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry to include
all types of ethically produced human pluripotent stem cells as well,
and renames the registry the Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Registry.
It encourages scientists to work with the NIH to add ethically produced
stem-cell lines to the registry.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at (215)
587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.
Flaws in arguments promoting embryonic stem cell
research
By Susan Brinkmann
CS&T Correspondent
During the debate on federal funding for embyronic stem cell research,
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R. Pa.) argued on behalf of government funding
for experiments on 265,000 human embryos that are slated for destruction.
“There are 400,000 of these embryos, which will be discarded,”
Specter said. “If they [could] produce life, no one would want to
have research done.
“The fact is, we appropriated $2 million, and only about 135,000
of those 400,000 embryos have been used. So it is a matter of ‘Use
them or lose them,’ pure and simple,” Specter added.
But Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, director of education for the National
Catholic Bioethics Center, said that false argument has ensnared many
lawmakers, news commentators, and even Catholics.
Referring to a 2002 study funded by the Rand Corporation, which found
the current inventory of frozen embryos being stored in U.S. fertility
clinics to stand at about 400,000, Father Pacholczyk said the vast majority
of them are not slated to be thrown out.
“Approximately 88 percent are being kept in storage for future family-
building,” Father Pacholcyzk said in his syndicated column.
“The actual number of embryos that have been designated for disposal
is quite small, only around 2.2 percent of the total,” he said.
“The fraction designated for research is also quite small, about
2.8 percent.
“Of the original 400,000 frozen embryos, therefore, only perhaps
11,000 would actually be available for destruction at the hands of researchers
who would like to harvest stem cells from them,” the priest said.
On the floor of the Senate, Specter also argued: “The potential
for medical research to cure or ameliorate the worst maladies of our era
will be present with the use of embryonic stem cell research.”
But Father Pacholcyzk noted in his column: “Embryonic stem cells
have not yet cured even a single human, while adult stem cells have successfully
treated thousands of patients suffering from more than 50 types of ailments.
“It is also true that there are no clinical trials in humans yet
using embryonic-type stem cells, while there are more than 200 clinical
trials already underway using various kinds of adult stem cells,”
the bioethicist priest continued.
“All of this reminds us how adult stem cells are, indeed, likely
to provide the most effective route to the largest numbers of cures in
the future,” Father Pacholcyzk said. “All of this also reminds
us how such research should be vigorously funded and encouraged.”
Contact Susan Brinkmann at fiat723@aol.com or (215) 965-4615.