George W Bush to undergo stem cell therapyPublished August 14th, 2007 George
W. Bush
A version of this futuristic, satirical jab at presidential stem cell policy
first appeared in Old Trout quarterly. A new edition of the essay, along
with a discussion of the international consequences of Bush's assault on
science will appear next year in American Thought and Culture in the 21st
Century.
Ailing George W. Bush to undergo stem cell therapy in London
Daughter Jenna donates cells in hopes of curing his deadly disease

August 9, 2016
Christopher Thomas Scott
London Correspondent, World Press International
British authorities, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair, greeted a
gravely ill George W. Bush, aged 70, as he arrived on a hospital gurney to a
subdued gathering at Heathrow International Airport. Bush suffers from
Guillain-Barré (ghee-yan bah-ray) Syndrome (GBS), an immune system disorder
that mercilessly attacks the body's nervous system. In its severe form, it
causes paralysis of the legs, arms, breathing muscles and face. GBS affects
thousands of Americans every year. In acute cases such as Mr. Bush's, the
pulmonary complications can be deadly.
Bush's sickness came on suddenly after suffering a bout of flu at his ranch
in Crawford, Texas. As his condition worsened, family members consulted with
specialists at Washington's newly rebuilt Walter Reed Medical Center. Within
hours, he was rushed to London on a specially equipped plane staffed with
medical personnel. He entered the prestigious King's College Stem Cell
Therapy Institute, where treatments for autoimmune diseases such as type I
diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and GBS show great promise.
A grim anniversary
The news comes exactly fifteen years after Bush's controversial
proclamations on embryonic stem cell research. From his Texas ranch on
August 9, 2001, he announced that from that day forward, not a single dollar
from the 28 billion dollar budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
could be used to make new embryonic stem cell lines (some funding was still
possible for research with a handful of preexisting embryonic cell lines).
His pronouncement prompted outrage from scientists, citizens, doctors, and
patients, who objected to a policy based on the beliefs of a powerful
political minority. Advocates stepped into the breach, supporting a handful
of private and state-funded programs, including California's
multibillion-dollar bond measure for embryonic stem cell research, which
awarded its first grants in 2007. Congress scrambled to write, and then
voted to enact laws to overturn his policy.
But the legislative efforts were in vain. In 2006, Bush scuppered the first
Congressional action-his first veto ever. In conservative quarters, his open
religious views and uncompromising moral certitude prompted other political
gambits, including the passage of the Embryo Protection Act, authored by
then-senator Sam Brownback, a religious conservative. Under the sweeping
provisions of the act, any American scientist, clinician, or patient found
using stem cells made from unwanted, two-day-old frozen embryos obtained
from in vitro fertilization (IFV) clinics is subject to criminal penalties
of $1,000,000 and 10 years in prison.
The result of the embryo legislation was swift and immediate. Senior
biomedical stem cell researchers abandoned their laboratories. Young
university scientists, who use government funds to establish their research
programs, chose other careers. A chill descended on American capital
markets, which rely on steady and unencumbered transfer of technology and
talent from academic and non-profit institutions into the for-profit sector.
A new term entered the investment lexicon, "founder flight." American
inventiveness, long a trademark of NIH investment in frontier medicine,
began to slow. Countries such as England, Norway, Israel, Australia, China
and Singapore stepped into the breach, developing novel therapies to benefit
their citizens. The result: an epidemic of "medical tourism," as sick
Americans traveled abroad for embryonic stem cell treatment-risking
imprisonment once they returned home.
A bitter irony
The therapy sought by Bush began its journey in the United States.
Researchers announced in 2002 that they could cure mice mimicking human
forms of autoimmune disease using embryonic stem cells. Fine-tuning the
treatment came thanks to a second type of laboratory mouse with a brain
partially comprised of diseased human neurons. Thousands of drug candidates
were screened in these animals. One of these compounds will be administered
to Mr. Bush.
Use of the special mice, called neural chimeras, is also illegal in the US.
After they were first developed in California, Bush stated in his 2006 State
of the Union address, "Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the
most egregious abuses of medical research: human cloning in all its forms,
creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal
hybrids, and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos." Brownback's
embryo protection act also outlaws neural chimeras. As a result, the
valuable rodents were smuggled to Singapore, where they are used to discover
drugs for a wide range of dementias, including Parkinson and Alzheimer
disease.
A DNA donor: don't leave home without one
Bush's treatment is becoming standard care for Europeans but is virtually
unknown in America. Clinicians will begin by using a technique called
nuclear transfer-also known as therapeutic cloning. Using a very fine glass
needle, the nucleus-containing genetic material or DNA-is gently suctioned
from a skin cell donated by Bush's daughter, Jenna. The nucleus is
transferred into a human egg stripped of its DNA. A small pulse of
electricity prompts the egg to divide. After a few days, a clump of cells
from the inside of the egg are removed and put into a plastic dish where
they begin to multiply, forming an immortal line of embryonic stem cells.
The cells made from his daughter's DNA, while not genetically identical,
must be used because the elder Bush's cells are defective. Doctors first
will attempt to fix his faulty immune system by replacing his rampaging
white blood cells with healthy, specialized stem cells made from the "Jenna
line." The procedure involves a mild dose of chemotherapy and drugs to
prevent rejection of the new cells. Once he has stabilized, a different
chemical cocktail will induce the embryonic line to produce a fresh supply
of neural stem cells. They will be injected into his brain to replace motor
neurons damaged by the disease. Drugs discovered using the outlawed chimeric
mice will stabilize Bush while he recovers. Thanks to the new technologies,
thousands of patients suffering from autoimmune disease now lead vastly
improved lives.
Banishment
News of Bush's sickness and treatment sent shock waves through Washington.
Religious conservative Pat Robertson, the keynote speaker at a Tennessee
conference for geologists studying intelligent design, called for Bush's
immediate imprisonment upon his return to Texas. Former senate majority
leader Bill Frist-now president of a health management company-said he had
reviewed a video feed of Bush shortly after he arrived in London. Frist, a
heart surgeon and social conservative, enraged moderate voters in 2005 with
his push for federal intervention to maintain life support for Terri
Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman. "As a medical doctor, I see nothing
wrong with him," he declared. "It's clear that his facial expression and
labored breathing is just excitement at the prospect of seeing his old
friend Tony Blair."
Meanwhile, Congress called a special session to discuss the issue of a
pardon for the former president. When asked after considering Bush's grave
condition if the cloning act ought to be amended to allow therapies using
embryonic stem cells, Senate Majority leader Brownback said, "No." "God is
punishing him for the sins he committed during college. His family can be
forgiven for trying to make him well. But we must think of all the cloned
human beings-the walking, talking embryos reaching out to us with their
little hands-that were murdered as a result of this therapy. We must respect
their lives more than the life of suffering humans, even humans that are
former American presidents. I wish him good luck during his long
convalescence in England."

Rayilyn Brown
Board Member AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation
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