Stem cell issue is causing headaches for GOP

By Matthew Chayes
Washington Bureau
Published March 3, 2006


WASHINGTON -- The drive to expand funding for embryonic stem cell research
seemed to have impressive momentum a year ago. A bill sailed through the
House and such popular Republicans as Nancy Reagan, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Sen. John McCain were publicly on board.

But now legislation is stalled in the Senate, with opponents and supporters
engaged in behind-the-scenes maneuvering over the measure. Proponents of
expanded research still hope to push through a bill this spring to increase
spending on what they consider potentially life-saving technology, but
opponents are equally impassioned and the outcome is uncertain.

The crossfire could leave Republicans in a tough spot. Some are beginning to
worry they will be hurt in November's midterm congressional elections if
they don't pass a stem cell bill. But many of the party's conservatives
forcefully oppose embryonic stem cell research as tantamount to abortion,
and President Bush has promised to veto any bill expanding federal funding
for it.

One proponent of expanded research, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of
the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he will hold a strategy session soon
with groups backing expanded federal research funding.

"I think we have the votes in the Senate to provide for federal funding for
stem cells," Specter said. "I think we are not too far from the number of
votes to override a presidential veto."

Issue personal to Specter

Specter, recovering from Hodgkin's lymphoma, views the issue in deeply
personal terms.

"I feel very strongly about it," he said, "because President Nixon declared
war on cancer in 1970, and had we devoted the resources to that war that we
do to other wars, I might not have gotten Hodgkin's."

Republicans are aware that, according to various polls, nearly 60 percent of
Americans support expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Some social "wedge issues," like gay rights, seem to divide Democrats from
many centrist voters, and this issue causes similar headaches for the GOP.

"We do not win as the Republican Party if this is a political issue," said
Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, executive director of the centrist Republican
Main Street Partnership.

Some Republicans, such as Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri, have modified their
positions. "He's in a dead heat for re-election, and this is a big issue,"
Resnick said. "I'd like to say he learned the facts, but the reality is he's
got a tough re-election."

Rich Chrismer, a Talent spokesman, explained the senator's switch: "He is
seeking to strike a balance by promoting new scientific breakthroughs . . .
that would allow us to get the stem cells we want without risking the
cloning or destruction of a human embryo."

The most notable switch came from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
(R-Tenn.). When Bush announced in 2001 that he would fund research on
existing stem cell lines but not new ones, Frist supported the president's
approach. But last year, the senator--a physician and presidential
hopeful--changed his mind and said he supported funding.

Frist is in a tricky position: He needs support from conservatives to win
his party's presidential nomination and from centrists to win the election.

"It's not Democrat or Republican, it's not conservative or liberal," Tricia
Brooks, director of government relations for the Christopher Reeve Paralysis
Foundation, which supports the research, said of the issue. "The support for
this legislation is vast, it's bipartisan."

2 strongest opponents

The strongest opponents of embryonic stem cell research in the Senate are
Sens. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who have close ties
to religious conservatives and note that an embryo must be destroyed to
access its stem cells. Proponents say the embryos, stored in fertility
clinics, would be destroyed anyway.

Coburn, a physician like Frist, said "the science" favors using adult stem
cells, which are taken from bone marrow and umbilical cord blood, rather
than discarded embryos. "The fact is that we're going to have a lot of those
[medical] answers without ever going an unethical way."

Amanda Banks, a spokeswoman for the conservative Focus on the Family Action
group, called Specter's bill "anti-life." She said her group will watch how
each senator votes, "and we'll make sure that's communicated to our
constituents."

Stem cell research supporters are backing the Specter bill, which mirrors
the version the House passed last year. Passing an identical bill would
avoid a conference committee to iron out differences between House and
Senate versions, which proponents fear could ultimately delay or doom the
legislation.

Opponents want to amend the Specter bill or offer alternatives, which
include bans on human cloning and animal-human hybrids. These proposals,
scientists say, could endanger research that already employs forms of
cellular hybrids.

"It may be vetoed, but it's not a dead bill," said Sen. Orrin Hatch
(R-Utah), one of several conservative Republicans supporting the stem cell
bill. "We still have to proceed forward because the more we proceed, the
more people will start to think like us."

[log in to unmask]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn