Bush Administration Hesitates On Stem Cell Research
By Christine Hall
CNS Staff Writer
April 26, 2001
(CNSNews.com) - A medical team from the National Institutes of Health,
responsible for judging whether researchers meet certain guidelines for
conducting stem cell experiments on frozen embryos, postponed a key
meeting this week. It immediately stirred more speculation about how the
Bush administration plans to handle the thorny issue that so many
conservatives consider crucial to their pro-life cause.

The meeting was postponed, according to Department of Health and
Human Services deputy press secretary Bill Hall, because HHS Secretary
Tommy Thompson is still reviewing the original, Clinton-era rules for
such research.

But the Christian Medical Association, which opposes embryonic
research, sees the administration's decision to postpone review of
preliminary "compliance documents" as a hopeful sign. "President Bush
has spoken out very clearly that he's opposed to the destruction of
human life to obtain stem cells," noted Dr. David Stevens, executive
director of the CMA. However, Stevens added, HHS Secretary
Thompson "has been much more pro-embryonic research, even though
he's pro-life in his views."

"They're free to interpret any way they want," said Hall about the
outside speculation. "The department made a decision -- the secretary
and other senior staff in the department. They felt it made the most
sense to postpone the meeting until after the guidelines review we're
doing is complete."

According to Hall, President Bush also "has indicated that he
understands the complex nature of this, and that's why he asked the
secretary to review the guidelines."

Clinton administration guidelines set forth by Thompson's predecessor,
Donna Shalala, established that federal funding for the stem cell
research was okay so long as the embryo itself was obtained with
private funds.

The issue has pitted groups seeking cures for dreaded diseases such as
Parkinson's and Alzheimer's against pro-life groups who believe that
embryos are, in the words of the American Life League, "the most
vulnerable of all human beings." Pro-life groups point to a study
released earlier this month revealing that stem cells can be extracted from
adult human fat cells as evidence that embryos are not even needed for
research.

And the American Life League doesn't see the postponement of a
meeting as a sign that the administration will ultimately de-fund
embryonic research. In fact, according to ALL, the opposite may be
happening.

"This is just a stall tactic, nothing more or less," said Judie Brown,
president of ALL. "This meeting being cancelled, as far as I'm
concerned, is meaningless. If truly President Bush had a problem with
any of the positions Tommy Thompson had taken as governor of
Wisconsin, why would he have nominated the man? I think that the
stem cell research people needed extra time, they needed to buy time
some way to make their case even clearer to the president and to the
American public."

Brown is also upset that the membership of the review group is
shrouded in secrecy. "I don't know where the study group came from. I
don't know who composed it. I don't know who sat on it. These names
are not available to the public. So it could be the National Bioethics
Advisory Commissioners. If it's the NBAC members, they're all for this
kind of research, anyway," she said.

Hall confirmed that the administration is not ready to release the names.
"NIH has not announced" the members of the review group because
"they haven't met, they haven't been brought together to do their work,"
he explained.

According to Hall, the meeting of the review group has not yet been
rescheduled.

http://www.cnsnews.com/Politics/archive/200104/POL20010426a.html

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