New embryonic stem cell research funding in doubt

Washington -- Legislation to allow federal funding of research on new embryonic stem cell lines fell short of the votes needed to override a threatened presidential veto, but the measure's supporters aren't giving up.

On April 11 the Senate passed the bipartisan Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 with 63 votes -- four short of the 67 needed to override a veto. But three senators who would have voted for the bill were absent, aides said. This means the legislation is potentially just one vote short of a veto-proof margin. The House on Jan. 11 approved a similar bipartisan bill 253-174, leaving it 37 votes short of the 290 required for an override.

Lawmakers supporting the legislation planned to meet in late April or early May to map out their next step, said Brandon MacGillis, spokesman for Rep. Diana DeGette (D, Colo.), sponsor of the House bill.

Both versions would allow federal funding for deriving new lines of stem cells from embryos, which many researchers argue is the most obvious, proven path for researching regenerative medicine.

But an Aug. 9, 2001, executive order by President Bush forbade federal funding for this research except on cell lines developed before that date, from embryos that were created for reproductive purposes but that would have been discarded. The rules stipulate that the embryos must have been donated without compensation.

The House and Senate bills would rescind the 2001 cutoff but maintain the other provisions of the Bush order. Still, the president said he would veto the measure as he did a similar bill last year -- the only veto of his presidency so far.

"I believe this will encourage taxpayer money to be spent on the destruction or endangerment of living human embryos -- raising serious moral concerns for millions of Americans," Bush said in an April 11 statement.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D, Iowa), a key supporter of stem cell legislation, said he would keep campaigning for the bill even if the president vetoes it. "Momentum is building. One way or another, we are going to lift these arbitrary restrictions," he said.

The Senate bill includes language encouraging scientists to develop non-embryonic stem cell lines. The Senate approved a bill with that same language 100-0 last year, but the House rejected it 273-154 as merely symbolic.

Alternative stem cell bill also passes

Bush said he supports another bill the Senate passed April 11: the Hope Offered through Principled and Ethical Stem Cell Research Act. This measure, sponsored by Sen. Norm Coleman (R, Minn.), passed 70-28. There isn't yet companion House legislation.

The measure would encourage researchers to use embryos that are "naturally dead," meaning ones that have ceased to develop, grow and divide. Scientists can take stem cells from these embryos much in the way doctors can harvest organs from the recently deceased, according to a Coleman aide. These embryos could be a new steady supply for researchers, although a concrete estimate on their numbers wasn't available, the aide said. Researchers already have derived one line of stem cells from this type of embryo, the aide said.

Sean Tipton, the president of Coalition for Advancement of Medical Research, said the Coleman bill isn't meaningful because it doesn't change federal policy.

"It exists only to provide political cover for opponents of embryonic stem cell research," Tipton said. The coalition is a bipartisan group of almost 100 patient advocacy organizations, universities, scientific and medical societies, and foundations supporting regenerative medicine.

Although using dead embryos and other methods might be promising, using healthy embryos is the only proven avenue for stem cell research, said Rudolph Jaenisch, MD, professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

While new areas of stem cell research should be pursued, it's too early to tell if they will be as fruitful as existing embryonic stem cell research, said Carrie Wolinetz, PhD, spokeswoman for the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

The American Medical Association is a member of the medical research advancement coalition. AMA policy encourages public support for federal funding of research on embryonic stem cells, among other types of pluripotent cells, meaning those that can develop into a variety of cells.

NIH director: Cell lines inadequate

When Harkin talked about momentum for a bill, he cited support for more embryonic stem cell research by Elias Zerhouni, MD, the director of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Zerhouni, in March 19 testimony to a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, said the federal funding ban was limiting the work researchers could do.

"It is clear today that American science would be better served and the nation would be better served if we let our scientists have access to more cell lines," he said.

When Bush announced his 2001 order, he expected 70 lines of stem cells to be available to researchers, which proved to be an overestimate, Tipton said. Today NIH has 21 cell lines available, but only about six are proving useful, Dr. Jaenisch said. Also, the NIH lines are aging and not the best available for research anymore, he added.

Embryonic stem cell researchers in America still can pursue private funding for their work, but they must assemble separate labs for their private and federally funded studies, Dr. Jaenisch said. "It's a logistical nightmare to do this."