FROM:
New York Times
May 6, 2004
Limits on Stem-Cell Research Re-emerge as a Political Issue
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

WASHINGTON, May 5 — The debate over embryonic stem-cell research, which
occupied President Bush during his early days in the White House, is
re-emerging as an election issue as advocates for patients, including
Nancy Reagan, press the president to loosen the limits on federal
financing for the science.

Mrs. Reagan, whose husband, former President Ronald Reagan, suffers from
Alzheimer's disease, has made her support for the research known but has
never spoken publicly about it. She is expected to do so in Beverly Hills
on Saturday night at a star-studded fund-raiser sponsored by the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation.

Embryonic stem-cell studies are controversial because they involve the
destruction of human embryos; Mr. Bush's policy, announced in August
2001, restricts the research in a way that does not permit embryos to be
destroyed with taxpayer dollars. But the diabetes foundation says the
policy is impeding science. It has been sending patients to lobby
lawmakers in Washington and has found some unlikely allies in Congress.

Last week, 206 members of the House, including some in the Republican
leadership and nearly three dozen opponents of abortion, signed a letter
urging Mr. Bush to allow the federal government to finance studies on
embryos left over from in vitro fertilization clinics, which would
otherwise be discarded.

Among those who signed is Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of
California, a staunch opponent of abortion who has opposed such research
in the past. Mr. Rohrabacher, who became the father of triplets last
week, was at home and declined to be interviewed. His spokesman, Aaron
Lewis, said that while the congressman "remains a pro-life member of
Congress," he was persuaded by the patients' stories.

In the Senate, Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who recently
won a hard-fought primary in his state with Mr. Bush's help and has long
been a proponent of the research, is drafting a similar letter. And the
Republican leader, Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, told reporters on
Tuesday that while he supported the president's policy he would like to
see it reviewed.

"It's been three years and I think it's time to do it," said Dr. Frist, a
heart surgeon who was influential in persuading Mr. Bush to take up the
stem-cell issue in the summer of 2001. He added, "I'm very interested in
answering the question whether or not scientists are really leaving this
country in droves because of the limitations on research."

A White House spokesman said Wednesday that the president would not
expand the policy. But the presumptive Democratic nominee, Senator John
Kerry of Massachusetts, was an early proponent of embryonic stem-cell
research and has been using his stump speeches to criticize the Bush
administration as choosing ideology over science. At a recent fund-raiser
in Harrisburg, Pa., Mr. Kerry made a point of mentioning diabetes
research, which he said Mr. Bush had no plan for.

Political candidates around the country, meanwhile, say they are hearing
constituents who want the research to go forward. "I spoke to the
American Jewish Committee just today and got asked about it," Mr. Specter
said Wednesday.

Mrs. Reagan, who is regarded by some as Republican royalty, will
undoubtedly put the issue back in the spotlight. Saturday's event, a
tribute to her, is expected to raise millions for stem-cell research.
There, she will receive an award from another high-profile advocate for
patients: the actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease and runs
a foundation that promotes research.

The event is being organized by Hollywood notables, including Douglas
Wick, a producer of the "Stuart Little" movies whose father, Charles Z.
Wick, ran the United States Information Agency under Mr. Reagan. Mr. Wick
declined to discuss what Mrs. Reagan might say.

It is not Mrs. Reagan's style to contradict publicly a Republican
president, but her views are well known. In 2001, as Mr. Bush was
wrestling with the issue, she quietly wrote to him, saying she hoped that
sparing other families what hers had suffered could be part of her
husband's legacy. She also expressed displeasure when the White House
took issue with a California law promoting stem-cell research. But,
careful to avoid a conflict with Mr. Bush, she has always made her views
known through surrogates.

The embryonic stem-cell debate is one of the thorniest in science and
politics. Scientists believe these cells, which can give rise to all
other cells and tissues in the body, can yield therapies and cures for
diseases that affect more than 100 million Americans. But to cultivate
the self-perpetuating colonies, or lines, of stem cells, the researchers
must destroy human embryos, which draws strong criticism from religious
conservatives and abortion opponents who are an important element of Mr.
Bush's political base.

For years, the federal government refused to pay for the research. On
Aug. 9, 2001, in the first major speech of his presidency, Mr. Bush
announced a compromise: he would permit taxpayer financing so long as the
studies involved only those stem-cell lines already in existence at that
time. The president said he did not want to encourage the destruction of
any more embryos.

Mr. Bush's spokesman, Trent Duffy, said the president's view had not
changed. "The president remains committed to exploring the promise of
stem-cell research," Mr. Duffy said, "but continues to believe strongly
that we should not cross a fundamental moral line by encouraging the
destruction of human embryos."

Opponents of the research are exerting their own pressure on the White
House, making it clear that they will hold Mr. Bush to his vow not to
allow further destruction of embryos. Senator Sam Brownback, a Kansas
Republican, who has been the leading opponent of embryonic stem-cell
research, said he would work to block any attempt to expand the policy,
and Representative Tom DeLay, the House Republican leader, said an
expansion was not necessary.

And on Tuesday, the American Life League, an anti-abortion group, sent a
letter to Congress urging the president and lawmakers to "advance the
ethical scientific research" that is being done using stem cells from
blood and bone marrow, which do not require the destruction of embryos.
The president, the letter said, should not "compound his original error
by approving the deadly use of even more human beings who are currently
in their embryonic stage of development."

Scientists say that in the nearly three years since the president
announced his policy, the research has moved slowly. Though the White
House initially announced 64 lines would be available for research, only
19 are currently available, according to the National Institutes of
Health, which says four more will be ready soon.

At the same time, researchers in South Korea and elsewhere have created
new stem-cell lines, frustrating scientists in the United States who
cannot use federal money to study those lines. "Everybody in the world
who works on these diseases can have access to those cells except people
who use U.S. government funding," said Irv Weissman, a stem-cell expert
at Stanford University.

Some states are taking matters into their own hands. California and New
Jersey have passed laws encouraging stem-cell research. Also in
California, Mr. Wick, whose 13-year-old daughter has diabetes, is
spearheading a ballot initiative to provide $3 billion for embryonic
stem-cell research.

"For people who are dealing with the flesh and blood consequences of
these delays," he said, "it is unacceptable."

Larry Soler, a lobbyist for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation,
said the organization concluded last year that the policy was not
working. So in the fall of 2003, he said, the group began encouraging
patients and their families to meet with members of Congress. Their
argument: "This is not a political issue. This is an issue that
transcends politics."

Lawmakers have found the patients difficult to resist. Among those who
signed onto the letter circulated in the House were Deborah Pryce of
Ohio, the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, Bill Thomas,
Republican of California and the chairman of the House Ways and Means
Committee, as well as Mr. Rohrabacher, whose aides met with Dan
Rodriguez, a Los Angeles firefighter, his wife and two daughters, one of
whom has diabetes.

Mr. Rodriguez said that when he visited the Rohrabacher office in 2001,
"they weren't too sure on the stem-cell issue." But the aide remembered
him, and this year the congressman signed on.

"We were thrilled," Mr. Rodriguez said. "You hear a lot of negatives
about government, but if you go and talk to your congressman or senator,
they listen."


John M. Broder contributed reporting from Los Angeles for this article.

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