House passes stem cell funding

WASHINGTON – Making good on a key campaign promise and reigniting a long-standing ethical controversy, the House approved legislation Thursday to expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research in the search for cures to diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and juvenile diabetes.

The bill now goes to the White House, and President Bush promised to veto it when he returns from Europe next week. He said Thursday that the House “chose to discard existing protections on human life.”

The Senate also has passed the stem cell measure, but supporters in both chambers have fallen short of the two-thirds majority necessary to override a veto.

Still, the Democratic Congress’ passage of the bill – which is also supported by a number of high-profile Republicans, including Nancy Reagan – forces Bush into the position of rejecting a popular bill and reinforces a political confrontation that will doubtless reach into the 2008 presidential contest. Supporters say they plan to keep introducing the bill until it passes, assuring that the matter stays before the public.

The emotional question of whether the government should fund the research using discarded embryos proved a political winner for Democrats in the 2006 campaign, as they attacked Republicans for being in thrall to the religious right and rejecting a scientific technique that could save innumerable lives.

In Thursday’s House vote, the tally was 247-176, with 37 Republicans joining 210 Democrats to support the measure. With a new crop of Democratic lawmakers, supporters gained 16 votes this year compared with similar legislation considered during the last Congress.

“This legislation does not seek to destroy life, it seeks to preserve life,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., noting that the embryos would be discarded by fertility clinics in any case. “We have a moral obligation to provide our scientific community with the tools it needs to save lives, and this legislation accomplishes exactly that.”

Embryonic stem cells are capable of forming all of the different tissue types found in the human body, and most scientists believe that could lead to treatment for an array of serious ailments, from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases to juvenile diabetes, cancer and spinal cord injuries.

But critics decry the destruction of human embryos that takes place in the course of that research. “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,” Bush said. “Crossing that line would be a grave mistake.”