Stem-Cell Debate Center Stage At Democratic Convention
BY JUDITH GRAHAM - Chicago Tribune

July 26, 2004

CHICAGO - (KRT) - Jim Kress, a prominent Wisconsin businessman, calls himself a
Republican. But Tuesday evening, he plans to watch the Democratic National
Convention and listen to Ron Reagan's speech about stem cells.

For Kress, 75, who's had Parkinson's disease for 18 years, it will be a chance to
reflect on the future of medical research, an issue he thinks Republicans are
handling badly.

For Reagan, son of the late Republican president, it's an occasion to explain what
many see as the scientific promise of embryonic stem cells, highly adaptable cells
that many scientists believe could one day lead to therapies or cures for diabetes,
Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, the disease his father had.

For the Democrats, Reagan's speech will be an extraordinary crossover moment, an
opportunity to bask in the political glow surrounding the former president and his
family while suggesting that their party stands with a majority of Americans on the
most important scientific debate of this election.

It's going to be "enormously important," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and a "huge
step forward" in raising awareness of stem-cell research.

For opponents of embryonic stem-cell research, who believe medicine and morality
are falling victim to hype, Reagan's speech is viewed as somewhat unseemly.

"It's a political ploy trying to trade on his father's name," said David Prentice, senior
fellow at the Family Research Council.

But Prentice doesn't dismiss the importance of the issue. When, as expected,
President Bush squares off against Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in debates this fall,
"stem-cell research is going to ... be on all the lists of questions," he said.

Few issues touch so many people: Nearly 100 million Americans are believed to
have illnesses that might be aided by stem-cell research - or have friends or family
members with such illnesses.

"People who care about this issue are as passionate, informed and focused as I've
ever seen ... (and) the level of interest in this is as great as I have experienced with
any science issue in all my years in public service," Wyden said.

In the debate over stem cells, Americans' commitment to scientific innovation runs
smack into their respect for life and their disagreement over when it begins.

That is the grounds for opposition to research using embryonic stem cells, which
come from human eggs frozen a few days after fertilization, before any cell
specialization has occurred. Because the process of extracting stem cells destroys
the embryos, opponents view this research as a destruction of human life.
Proponents argue that these embryos - a mass of fewer than 100 cells - are not
worth more than the life and health of millions of Americans that might be helped by
stem cell therapies.

Bush has tried to strike a balance between these competing points of view. In
November 2001, he limited the number of embryonic stem cell lines eligible for
federal funding to the 78 lines - or families of cells derived from a single embryo -
that existed at that time.

So far, only 21 of those lines are available to researchers.

"Can I tell you with certainty that the 21 lines now available allow us to reach full
and ultimate clinical benefit from embryonic stem-cell research? I don't know," said
Dr. James Battey, who directs stem-cell research for the National Institutes of
Health. "Is it possible we will reach a day when we feel we need more lines? Yes,
there is indeed a possibility that day will come and maybe come in the next few
years, but I don't believe that day is today."

Battey said research involving adult and embryonic stem cells is important. Some
groups have argued that adult stem cells, which come from mature organs and don't
involve the destruction of embryos, show great scientific promise and should be a
stronger focus of such research. But embryonic cells have special properties - they
apparently multiply without restriction and appear better able to become any tissue
in the body - and their potential should be explored, Battey said.

To facilitate research, the NIH earlier this month announced plans to create a
national embryonic stem cell repository including all federally funded lines and to
establish three new research centers that will help translate stem-cell research into
useful therapies.

Bush believes the current policy "provides a balanced approach to explore the
promise of this exciting science in an ethical and moral fashion," said White House
spokesman Trent Duffy. "Life should not be created just to be destroyed or used for
spare parts."

Critics say the administration is not doing enough to support a rapidly developing
science that needs more freedom to explore some 200 embryonic stem cell lines
now reported to exist around the world.

Last month, Kerry put himself firmly in the "we need to do more" camp by vowing in
Denver to "tear down every wall today that keeps us from finding the cures of
tomorrow."

Researchers such as Chicago geneticist Dr. Yuri Verlinsky are creating new stem
cell lines from frozen embryos stored in fertility clinics in cases where the parents
no longer want the embryos and have agreed to donate them to science.

Most of the new cell lines created during the past three years have been developed
by private companies, many of them outside the United States. These have begun
to include disease-specific embryonic stem cell lines for conditions such as
muscular dystrophy. Researchers want to see how these diseased cells develop
when compared with normal cells. This will make possible new therapies and
perhaps even cures, said Dr. Robert Goldstein, chief scientific officer of the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation.

Some 206 members of the House of Representatives and 58 senators have written
to the Bush administration this year, asking it to ease restrictions on federal funding
and allow scientists to work with more embryonic stem cell lines.

The University of Chicago, the University of Illinois and more than 130 other
academic institutions, patient groups, medical organizations and scientists have
urged similar changes.

If there is a political advantage for Democrats in the stem cell debate, it could be its
potential to serve as a wedge issue, perhaps attracting independent voters and
moderate Republicans, political analysts say.

A June poll conducted by Opinion Research Corp. on behalf of the Civil Society
Institute found that three-quarters of Americans support research involving
embryonic stem cells. The survey of 1,017 adults also showed that three-quarters of
respondents - including 6 in 10 conservatives - supported former First Lady Nancy
Reagan's call for fewer restrictions on the research. Because the issue is
complicated and little-understood, the pollsters gave detailed briefings before
asking their questions - a practice that conservatives say prejudiced the results.

The debate over stem-cell policy is also playing out in many states.

When California voters go to the polls Nov. 2 to help choose the next president,
they will also consider a ballot initiative to establish a $3 billion state-run facility for
embryonic and adult stem-cell research.

New Jersey became the first state to officially endorse stem-cell research earlier
this year. In Illinois, a bill endorsing stem-cell research - renamed the Ronald
Reagan Biomedical Research Act after the former president's death in June - is
stalled in the legislature. Harvard University, Stanford University and the University
of Wisconsin are among the growing numbers of academic institutions establishing
stem-cell research centers.

In Green Bay, Wis., Kress, chairman of Green Bay Packaging, often finds himself
frustrated when discussing stem-cell research with his Republican friends. Though
with his Parkinson's he finds it hard to button shirts and put on a dinner jacket,
Kress golfs and works out daily to keep up his strength.

"They tell me, `I'm pro-life,' and I tell them, `Pro-life has nothing to do with it.' This is
something else altogether. This is a question of, are we going to flush these
unwanted frozen embryos down the drain, or are we going to use them to help
people?" said Kress, who said he probably will vote for Kerry because of this issue.

"I can't imagine any higher priority for the government than this. Anybody who says
differently, well, I guess they've never had Parkinson's."

---

(Tribune national correspondent Vincent J. Schodolski in Los Angeles contributed
to this report.)

---

SOURCE: The Chicago Tribune / The State, SC
http://tinyurl.com/4nf7v

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