New York Daily News - Online Edition
Stem-Cell Funds Are Truly Pro-Life
by MICHAEL KRAMER

I had hoped President Bush would see the light and do the right
thing, but it appears that he hasn't and won't.

The issue this time is a likely White House decision to revoke
guidelines, set by the Clinton administration last fall, that allow
federal funding of biomedical research using cells from human
embryos.

Stem cells, as they're called, are usually harvested from embryos
discarded during in-vitro fertilization, the process that allows
women to have babies when they otherwise couldn't.

This is no minor controversy.

Scientists are excited about using stem cells to help cure such
crippling diseases as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, juvenile diabetes,
cancer, spinal-cord injuries and a variety of cancers and heart
afflictions.

The lives — and the quality of life — of literally millions
of Americans hang in the balance.

As Bush considers whether to continue the Clinton
regulations — a decision is expected before mid-July,
when he visits the Vatican on a trip to Italy for the annual
economic summit of major industrialized nations — the
President is being lobbied by two sets of competing advisers.

On one side is a group of White House assistants who fear
alienating anti-abortion conservatives who consider the use
of stem cells immoral because, they say, using them
encourages abortion.

The Personal vs. the Political
The prime voice opposing the research is Karl Rove,
the President's top political operative, and Rove's view
is reported to be having the greatest impact on Bush's thinking,
because it tracks the President's own personal view.

"I oppose federal funding for stem-cell research that involves
destroying living human embryos," Bush recently wrote in a letter
to an anti-abortion group.

The counter argument is being pushed hardest by Health and
Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson
(himself a pro-life Republican) who favors continuing the federal
funding because of the research's proven medical promise.

Among those standing with Thompson is Pennsylvania Sen.
Arlen Specter, a rare abortion-rights Republican, who says
"it's different, having an embryo in a dish and having one
in a woman's womb."

"Having an embryo in a woman's womb is having a life,"
Specter says. "In a dish, it's just going to be discarded"
anyway — a reference to the embryos trashed as a by-product
of the in-vitro fertilization process.

Specter's abortion-rights stance makes his favorable position
on stem-cell research predictable. More important are the views
of others who oppose abortion but who nonetheless support
funding the research.

Funding Keeps Guidelines in Place
Two of the most eloquent of these proponents are Republican
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Connie Mack, a former GOP senator
from Florida.

In a recent letter to the White House, Hatch called stem-cell
research "consistent with bedrock pro-family, pro-life values,"
adding that the ethical issues raised by the anti-abortion forces
are "fundamentally different" from those involving abortion.

"As both a cancer survivor and a pro-life Catholic," Mack wrote
last week, "I have struggled with [this] issue. Yet, after weighing
the facts and the moral issues, I'm convinced the right choice
is clear. I hope the President allows federal support to continue
for this vital research."

Noting that the National Institutes of Health have adopted
"strict guidelines under which scientists must operate,"
Mack argued that ending federal funding would "cut off almost all
federal controls." But "with federal guidelines in place," he said,
"scientists are likely to adhere" to the standards and help guard
against the possibility of women having abortions simply to profit
from selling the embryos produced.

Mack also pointed to several surveys "in which even pro-life
groups including Catholics (72%), fundamentalist Christians (63%)
and abortion opponents (57%)" favor stem-cell research
despite their opposition to abortion.

There's still time for Bush to reverse course, and therefore still hope
that he'll side with science over politics. And, as the polls
Mack cites suggest, this time, doing the right thing may also be
smart politically.

Original Publication Date: 6/24/01

http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-06-24/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a-115995.asp

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