Hi,

Couldn't help but pick out the line in the CQ Weekly-Science article and use it in
the subject header.

 I have a complete list of House members currently in office who voted against
fetal-tissue research, which is not the same thing as stem-cell research.  It was
H.R. 4. The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993.  I'll post the list as soon as I can get
it scanned in to my computer.

Also, there is supposedly a "ProLife Caucus" that wants to ban all stem-cell
research.  Does anyone know whether the 20 who signed the Trent Lott letter
constitute this caucus?

Linda, have you tried the sites:

Contacting Congress--   http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/   then go to Thomas' link
(Thomas' has everything that goes on in the legislature), which takes you to a
completely new site.

And Roll Call, a beltway newspaper, whose editor is Mort Kondracke, a champion of PD
advocacy.
  http://www.rollcall.com/newsscoops/newsscoops.html

Charlotte
-------------------------
Linda J Herman wrote:

>     I have also been trying to locate information on the viewpoints of
> the candidatess on stem cell research -- including the Democratic
> candidates as well. So far, only can find information on McCain, but I
> found the following two articles which indicate the focus of debate may
> be moving from the NIH to the Congress. The first is about opposing bills
> on funding  the research and the 4 Senators sponsoring them. The second
> is long, but gives great backgound info on both the scientific and
> political issues - from BOTH sides. BOth articles are from this week's
> Congressional Quarterly Weekly magazine.
>     Does anyone have more info on these bills?
> Linda Herman
>
>      CQ WEEKLY - SCIENCE
>      Feb. 19, 2000
>     Dominant Voices
>      By Adriel Bettelheim, CQ Staff
>
>          The upcoming debate over whether to allow federal funding of
>      embryonic stem cell research will be dominated by a handful of
>      lawmakers.
>      Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
>          Specter chairs the Appropriations Labor, Health and Human
>      Services, and Education subcommittee that oversees the budget of
>      the National Institutes of Health (NIH). After initially
>      expressing reservations over the legal and moral implications of
>      stem cell research, Specter is pushing legislation with Sen. Tom
>      Harkin, D-Iowa, that would allow federally funded scientists not
>      only to do the work, but also to derive human embryonic stem
>      cells from embryos donated by fertility clinics. The bill would
>      bar the creation of human embryos for their stem cells and would
>      ban the use of cloning technology with stem cells to create a
>      human being.
>
>      Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.
>          A champion of conservative causes with close personal and
>      political ties to religious activists, Brownback has emerged as
>      the point person in congressional efforts to bar federal funding
>      for embryonic stem cell research. Brownback describes draft NIH
>      guidelines endorsing the research as an attempt to flout a 1995
>      congressional ban on embryo research. "Clearly, the destruction
>      of human beings is an integral part of the contemplated
>      research," he says.
>
>      Rep. Jay Dickey, R-Ark.
>          The first Republican to represent southern Arkansas since
>      Reconstruction, Dickey authored the 1995 ban on federally funded
>      research using human embryos. Dickey says this should extend to
>      stem cell research.
>
>      Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa
>          Cosponsor with Specter of the pro-stem cell research bill,
>      Harkin is one of the Senate's leading champions of the disabled
>      and has fought for increased funding for breast cancer research.
>
>                              Source: CQ Weekly
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------------------------------------------
> CQ WEEKLY - SCIENCE
>      Feb. 19, 2000
>         Senate Argues Promise and Peril Of Human Stem Cell Research
>      By Adriel Bettelheim, CQ Staff
>
>          Biomedical science appears to be on a collision course with
>      abortion politics as Congress prepares to begin debate on whether
>      to endorse federal funding of research on human embryonic stem
>      cells.
>
>          These "master cells" are capable of evolving into nearly
>      every kind of tissue in the body and could hold the key to curing
>      conditions such as Parkinson's disease and healing spinal cord
>      injuries. But anti-abortion critics contend that stem cell
>      research falls under the 1995 congressional ban on embryo
>      research. (1995 CQ Almanac, p. 11-58)
>
>          The issue threatened to hold up passage of a Labor, Health and
> Human Services (HHS) and Education appropriations bill last September
> until Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Appropriations
> Labor-HHS Subcommittee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa.,agreed to drop
> language endorsing the research
>      and take it up as a separate bill this year.(1999 CQ Weekly, p.
> 2294)
>
>          Specter and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, have introduced legislation
> (S 2015) that would allow government-funded scientists both to conduct
> the
>      research and to extract stem cells from embryos donated by fertility
> clinics that otherwise would have discarded them. Specter has scheduled
>      a Feb. 22 hearing on stem cell research in the Appropriations
> subcommittee.
>
>          The same day, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will close
> the public comment period on draft guidelines issued in December that
> endorse federally funded stem cell research but stop short of allowing
> NIH-supported researchers to extract them. A group of conservative
> lawmakers led by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., with support from such
> abortion opponents as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, is
> pressuring NIH to withdraw the guidelines, saying they run counter to the
> 1995 ban and effectively encourage the destruction of human life.
>
>          Anti-abortion groups take the position that stem cells are the
> equivalent of embryos and merit the same status as a human being. But in
> sorting through such philosophical questions as when life begins,
> lawmakers could find themselves in the awkward position of regulating a
> nascent but promising branch of the health sciences.
>
>          "Stem cell research is one of the most critical issues affecting
> the future of the biomedical community" Ronald M. Green, chairman of the
> Ethics Institute at Dartmouth College, said in an interview Feb. 15.
> "It's forcing us  to rethink our ethical, moral and religious
> considerations. It cuts very deep to the bone and is triggering a major
> health lobbying effort."
>
>          Among those watching the debate closely are drug companies,
> which believe they can use stem cells to create new anti-aging  products
> and cures for a variety of degenerative diseases. The  most prominent
> player is Geron Corp., a Menlo Park, Calif., biotechnology company that
> has funded groundbreaking stem cell research at the University of
> Wisconsin and Johns Hopkins  University.
>
>          Scientists and advocacy groups for victims of various diseases
> are strongly lobbying in favor of federally funded  research, saying the
> cells could be the source of healthy  replacement tissue for sufferers of
> heart disease and a host of
>      other afflictions. Advocates say the cells also offer the best
> glimpse yet into the earliest stages of human development, which could
> yield a new understanding of birth defects and improve the  way drugs are
> designed. Those in favor of federal funding for  research include Sen.
> Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., an abortion foe  whose daughter suffers from
> juvenile diabetes, and 67 U.S. Nobel  Prize winners.
>
>          "The vast majority of Americans strongly support the
>      advancement of biomedical research through the application of
>      their tax dollars," said Daniel Perry, executive director of the
>      Alliance for Aging Research. "Surveys consistently show Americans
>      want to see greater efforts against serious and life-threatening
>      diseases."
>
>          But opponents of stem cell research say the scientists are
>      essentially proposing to destroy life to advance their research.
>      The opponents, who believe that life begins at conception, argue
>      that stem cells, while biologically primitive, are distinct
>      entities that deserve the same moral status as a person. The
>      critics say scientists tend to emphasize the biological aspects
>      of their research while downplaying the way stem cells are
>      extracted from embryos. And they fear advances in cloning
>      technology soon will lead researchers to create embryos solely
>      for the purpose of extracting stem cells.
>
>          "The embryonic stem cell research being proposed by NIH is
>      illegal, immoral and unnecessary," Brownback said at a Feb. 7
>      news conference. "There are legitimate areas of research which
>      are showing more promise than embryonic stem cell research and
>      which do not create moral and ethical difficulties."
>
>          Lawmakers joining Brownback in the effort to block funding
>      for stem cell research include 19 mostly conservative Republican
>      senators, among them Lott and Assistant Majority Leader Don
>      Nickles of Oklahoma, and several lawmakers who traditionally have
>      not been vocal opponents of embryo research, such as Pete V.
>      Domenici, R-N.M. Also in the group is Republican presidential
>      candidate John McCain of Arizona, who recently came under fire
>      from Texas Gov. George W. Bush, campaigning in advance of the
>      South Carolina GOP primary, for his support of fetal tissue
>      research.
>
>      Past Battles Recalled
>
>          In some ways, the debate recalls past congressional battles
>      over cloning and fetal tissue research that also challenged some
>      lawmakers' fundamental beliefs about life. But stem cells may
>      have even more profound meaning, say experts such as Dartmouth's
>      Green, because they offer the highest-resolution view yet of the
>      beginning of human development.
>
>          Stem cells are microscopic clumps of dozens of cells that
>      reside inside days-old embryos. When isolated in culture dishes,
>      stem cells can differentiate into specific types such as heart
>      muscle cells or brain cells. They can also divide indefinitely in
>      the laboratory, providing a potentially never-ending supply of
>      replacement parts and organs.
>
>          However, because the field of stem cell research is not even
>      two decades old, scientists still do not understand the mechanism
>      through which these master cells evolve into certain body parts,
>      or how they can be coaxed into becoming a particular type of
>      cell. With federal funding, researchers believe, they can unlock
>      these secrets and use stem cells for such purposes as creating
>      healthy insulin-producing pancreas cells for sufferers of
>      diabetes or new nerve cells for individuals with spinal cord
>      injuries.
>
>          The stem cell debate took on added urgency in 1998 after
>      researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Johns Hopkins
>      University, working separately, became the first scientists to
>      isolate human stem cells. The Wisconsin team extracted stem cells
>      from embryos donated by fertility clinics, while the Johns
>      Hopkins scientists extracted stem cells from the gonads of
>      aborted fetuses.
>
>          Both teams of scientists, unsure whether their work was
>      violating the congressional embryo research ban, avoided using
>      public funding and relied on private money from Geron and other
>      sources. Since then, the University of Wisconsin has created the
>      nonprofit WiCell Research Institute, which will sell embryonic
>      stem cells for research purposes.
>
>          Further complicating the debate is the fact that there are
>      different types of stem cells. Scientists say stem cells can be
>      extracted from umbilical cord blood and from adult human beings.
>      But those cells are not biologically equivalent to stem cells
>      taken from embryos and do not appear as capable of evolving into
>      many different cell types. Opponents of embryonic stem cell
>      research say more federal money should be spent on studying how
>      these "adult stem cells" can be harvested and used to cure
>      disease.
>
>          The 1995 congressional ban on embryo research was authored by
>      Rep. Jay Dickey, R-Ark., and bars spending federal taxpayer money
>      on biomedical research involving embryos outside the womb.
>      However, the measure did not take into account the extraction of
>      stem cells. Dickey has attached his measure to the annual
>      appropriations bills that fund NIH. But attempts to modify it to
>      specifically address stem cells were dropped last year as part of
>      an effort by Republican congressional leaders to avoid
>      controversial riders that might force political showdowns with
>      the Clinton administration. Meanwhile, NIH has temporarily halted
>      any stem cell research while it develops guidelines.
>
>          Observers say lawmakers on both sides of the debate have
>      several options. Those opposed to funding the research can try to
>      muster support to change the wording of Dickey's ban so that it
>      explicitly mentions stem cell research. Supporters can try to
>      endorse stem cell research by passing a stand-alone measure like
>      Specter's.
>
>          If no consensus emerges, as many expect, lawmakers can elect
>      to let the ban stand and defer to NIH on the issue of stem cell
>      research. Such a move would likely pave the way for federal
>      scientists to begin research, but only if they obtained stem
>      cells from privately funded entities, research institutions or
>      biotech companies. Opponents contend that such a policy would
>      flout the 1995 ban and trigger legal challenges.
>
>          With Republicans again eager to avoid controversial measures
>      attached to spending bills, congressional sources expect heated
>      debates to develop in the Senate and House over stand-alone stem
>      cell bills.
>
>          Spokesmen for Dickey and Brownback said last week that
>      neither lawmaker has immediate plans to introduce a bill banning
>      stem cell research. But both have reiterated that the destruction
>      of embryos, which they view as a clear violation of the law, is
>      an integral part of such research.
>
>          Advocates of stem cell research, meanwhile, are trying to
>      convince uncommitted lawmakers that barring federal funding for
>      the work will not stop scientists from extracting stem cells.
>      Instead, the advocates argue, it will allow companies like Geron
>      to proceed unchecked and control the supply and use of stem
>      cells. The advocates say it is far preferable to have NIH
>      overseeing the work because it ensures that more scientists will
>      apply for grants and get involved in the field.
>
>          "We believe the [NIH] guidelines as proposed will enable this
>      critical research to advance while simultaneously protecting the
>      moral and ethical sensibilities of the American people," Paul
>      Berg, the 1980 Nobel Laureate in chemistry, wrote on behalf of
>      the American Society for Cell Biology, one of the groups
>      supporting federally funded research.

--
Charlotte A. Mancuso
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