LA Times
Thursday, June 28, 2001
Compromise in Works for Embryo Cells
Science: Cabinet official seeks deal that would allow current
research to continue in promising but controversial field.
By RONALD BROWNSTEIN, AARON ZITNER, Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON--As President Bush nears a decision on the future
of medical research using embryo cells, Health and Human Services
Secretary Tommy G. Thompson is privately promoting a compromise
that would allow federal funding for some embryo experiments.

Under the proposed compromise, the federal government would
pay for experiments using cells that have already been obtained
from embryos but not for any research that requires the
destruction of additional embryos, according to an official
close to Thompson. The source said Thompson believes that
such a compromise would allow scientists to gather enough
information on embryonic cells so that a decision on their
medical use could be made in several years "based on science,
not emotion."

The administration's tension over the issue has reached the
point where supporters and opponents of the research disagree
even about the state of the internal debate. Thompson has
directed his aides to explore the possible compromise with the
White House domestic policy staff, but one ranking White
House official said Wednesday that Thompson "has had
his say" and the issue is now in the hands of Bush and
his aides.

At the same time, Thompson has discussed the issue at
least twice with Bush over lunch and told aides that he
believes the president "is genuinely conflicted" over the
controversial research and has not made up his mind.

Thompson's principal adversary in the internal debate
has been Karl Rove, Bush's chief political strategist,
who has argued that the president risks angering Catholic
voters and conservative supporters if he backs the embryo
research.

The cells, known as stem cells, are believed by many
scientists and by the National Institutes of Health to offer
the most promising route to new treatments for a variety
of debilitating ailments. But the Catholic Church and antiabortion
groups oppose the research because embryos are destroyed in
obtaining the cells.

"We are trying to come up with basically a compromise,"
said the source close to Thompson, who is following the
issue closely. "I don't get the sense that the president wants
to come out for an all-out ban. We are trying to find . . . some
kind of middle ground."

"I'll make a decision about that very emotional issue later
on," Bush told reporters Wednesday.

Anti-Abortion Groups Perceive Bush Promise
During the election last fall, Bush's campaign said he opposed
research in which embryos are destroyed. Antiabortion groups
took that as a promise that Bush, if elected, would block an NIH
plan to fund embryonic stem cell research. The NIH announced
the plan in August and had accepted proposals from researchers,
but the Bush administration put the process on hold while it
sorts through the issue. No money has been granted to
researchers.

Several antiabortion groups have already made clear that they
would oppose the sort of compromise that Thompson is
discussing.

"The question is black and white," said Judie Brown, president
of the American Life League, an antiabortion group. "There is
no compromise. You may not kill one person for the sake of
another person, and I don't care if that person is a single cell
in size."

Thompson has asked the NIH to assess the feasibility of a
compromise that would allow research using the existing pool
of stem cells that have already been extracted from embryos
by researchers using private funds.

"What you could do is have NIH license those stem cell lines
and try to do research based on that," said the official close
to Thompson. "You would say no embryos can be destroyed,
but to the extent we have these embryos already destroyed
you can do research, so that in three to five years we can
have a scientific justification for going forward or not going
forward."

Under the NIH plan, researchers could not create embryos
for experimental purposes. But they could use embryos donated
by fertility patients as long as they used private funds to extract
the stem cells. In the course of producing children at fertility
clinics, patients commonly create more embryos in the laboratory
than they use. Patients have generally chosen to discard those
embryos or to freeze them for future use.

Antiabortion groups would oppose such a compromise and
scientists might consider it inadequate. Only a handful of cell lines
have been created and some scientists say they want to work with
cells from several dozen embryos.

As the administration debates the issue, advocates of embryo-
cell research have increased political pressure on Bush. They
have tried to establish a scientific argument for the research by,
among other things, winning signatures from 80 Nobel laureates
on a letter calling for Bush to allow federal funding.

They have also argued that patients and their advocates bring
as much emotion and fervor to the issue as do the antiabortion
groups.

Some Powerful Political Backers
Perhaps most important, supporters of the research have won
the backing of several prominent politicians with strong
antiabortion credentials.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) recently wrote a 12-page, single-
spaced letter to Bush outlining his views of how the research
"is consistent with our shared pro-life, pro-family values."
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has said he is "leaning toward
supporting it very strongly." Senate Minority Leader Trent
Lott (R-Miss.) has said he sees "great potential" for the
research, although he has stopped short of endorsing federal
funding.

In 1995, Congress barred federal funding for research in
which embryos were destroyed. But in 1998, scientists
first isolated stem cells in human embryos.

The next year, the Clinton administration, in a legal ruling,
determined that although the government could not fund the
destruction of embryos, it could support research that used
stem cells created with private funds.

Bush could ban such funding by rescinding the Clinton
legal ruling and ordering HHS to issue an interpretation that
the law bars federal funding for both the use and production
of embryonic stem cells.

The recent flurry of GOP support suggests that even if the
administration bans the research, the Senate would probably
vote to reauthorize it. That would send the debate to an
uncertain fate in the Republican-controlled House.

Embryo stem cells have drawn intense interest from
researchers because they have the ability to grow into any
type of cell or tissue in the body. Scientists hope the cells
can be grown into replacement tissue for patients.

Opponents of the embryo research have focused on the
fact that the adult body contains various other types of
stem cells. Many scientists say that the adult cells are not
as versatile as those from embryos, but antiabortion groups
say that the full promise of adult cells should be explored
before embryo cells are considered.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/science/20010628/t000053474.html

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