It was predicted earlier in the week that Gov. Thompson would be
questioned about stem cell research during hiis confirmation hearing, but
it appears that hasn't happened. Below are excerpts from  NY Times
article that highlights many of the current political issues. The full
article is at the following URL:
Stem Cell Research Advocates in Limbo
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/20/health/20STEM.html
(Requires free registration with NY  Times online-- see below)
Linda Herman

January 20, 2001
RESEARCH AND MORALITY
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

 "...For tens of thousands of Americans with incurable illnesses   not
only diabetes but also degenerative brain disorders like
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases   stem cell
research offers the tantalizing promise of a cure. Last summer the
Clinton administration issued rules that would permit the National
Institutes of Health to pay for certain stem cell studies. Now Mr.
Bush is considering whether to block the institutes' money before
the first experiment gets under way...

 Mr. Bush has said he opposes federal financing of "experimentation
on embryonic stem cells that require live human embryos to be
discarded or destroyed." Earlier this week, a Bush spokesman, Scott
McClellan, reiterated that statement and said the Clinton policy is
under review.

 But proponents of the research say they have cause for optimism
because Gov. Tommy G. Thompson of Wisconsin, who is Mr. Bush's
choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has
been an enthusiastic supporter of privately financed stem cell
research. At his Senate confirmation hearing today, Mr. Thompson
drew praise for that support from Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of
Iowa. But the question of federal financing did not come up, and
Mr. Thompson did not address it.

 In recent years, scientists have been able to extract embryonic
stem cells from embryos that, typically, have been created by
couples undergoing in-vitro fertilization and kept frozen at
infertility clinics. Couples may direct the clinics to donate their
excess embryos for research, or to keep them frozen indefinitely,
or to destroy them. The stem cells hold promise for treating
disease.

 Embryonic stem cells hold promise because they have the potential
to grow into any cell in the body. Adult stem cells, which are
derived from blood and bone marrow, are also promising, and Mr.
Bush supports research in this area. But because embryonic stem
cells can proliferate indefinitely and grow into many types of
cells, medical experts see them as the building blocks of
"regenerative medicine."

 ...For diseases that affect the brain, like Parkinson's,
Huntington's and Lou Gehrig's disease, stem cells might be used to
grow healthy neurons.

 "This is our hope," said Hal Pilkskaln of Bourne, Mass., whose
wife died of Huntington's disease in 1984 and who has two children
with the disease.

 Yet at the same time, Mr. Pilkskaln said, many advocates for
patients are reluctant to call too loudly for government-financed
stem cell research; they fear that they will be labeled
troublemakers, and that private research money will dry up.

 "Because it has been so politicized," he said, "it makes it
difficult to stand up and say, `This is what I want.' "

 For that reason, advocacy groups are treading gingerly. The
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation commissioned a poll that, a
spokesman said on Wednesday, found that 65 percent of Americans
supported federal financing for stem cell research.

 And Dan Perry, executive director of the Alliance for Aging
Research, a nonprofit group in Washington, said a coalition of
patients' groups would send a nonconfrontational letter to Mr. Bush
asking him to "leave the current situation untouched."

 "We are trying to keep a low profile on this," Mr. Perry added.

.... since 1995 Congress has imposed an annual ban on federal financing
of research that leads to the destruction of human embryos.

 In January 1999, the Department of Health and Human Services
announced that the ban did not apply to human embryonic stem cells,
and said it would issue rules to govern research....
 The new rules were issued last August; they permit federally
financed scientists to experiment with cell lines derived from
embryos, so long as those scientists do not extract the cells from
embryos themselves. The health institutes are soliciting grant
applications; they are due on March 15.

 ... Senator Strom Thurmond, Republican of South Carolina, an
abortion opponent, has spoken out strongly in favor of stem cell
studies. Mr. Thurmond has a daughter with diabetes. Senator Gordon
H. Smith, Republican of Oregon, who has a relative with Parkinson's
disease, also favors stem cell research.

 "Part of my pro-life ethic is to make life better for the living,"
Mr. Smith has said in letters to constituents.

 The stem cell controversy has echoes of a similar dispute, over
fetal tissue research, that arose when Mr. Bush's father assumed
the presidency. At that time, in 1989, abortion opponents urged
President George Bush to extend a ban on federally financed fetal
tissue research. He did, but the ban was lifted by President
Clinton, and Congress has since enacted legislation permitting the
studies.

 As the debate over stem cell research continues, there has been an
explosion in private research among scientists like Dr. Melton, of
Harvard. That troubles some medical ethicists, who say that without
federal financing, there is no federal regulation, leaving a field
heavy with ethical implications to profit-making entrepreneurs. Dr.
Melton, meanwhile, says unless the National Institutes of Health
can pay for the research, the field will not progress.

 "Great advances are made when they give grants to large numbers of
people who have new ideas," he said. "And so it would be a mistake
if everyone counted on a few of us."

 In the meantime, patients and their families are watching and
waiting. To them, the transition of power in Washington, an event
from which many Americans feel removed, is a deeply personal
matter.

 "We're not talking about your livelihood or your job or how the
traffic flows," said Judy Culpepper, whose husband, Brett, recently
underwent a fetal tissue transplant for his Parkinson's disease.
"We are talking about affecting your ability to survive." "
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