PRO-LIFE AND PRO-HOPE by Joan Samuelson Washington Post, Thursday,
February 17, 2000; Page A31
It is time for a fact check on rhetoric by Gov. George W. Bush's campaign and
its allies attacking Sen. John McCain's support for fetal tissue research. I
know what happened, because I lobbied Congress to lift the six-year ban on
federal support for the research, which it did in 1993.
I care because I have Parkinson's disease. I fear that inaccuracies spread by
Bush campaign spokesmen or supporters such as the National Right to Life
Committee will misinform the public on the merits of this research -- and
imperil one of my best hopes for a cure.
Listening to the sound bites--that McCain is a "liberal" and "soft on
abortion" -- one would assume the "fetal tissue issue" is, in fact, an
abortion issue. It isn't, and it never has been, and many "pro-life"
legislators strongly support the research.
Allowing research using fetal tissue does not affect whether or not an
abortion will happen. A 1997 General Accounting Office study
confirmed that longstanding guidelines prevent the decision to donate tissue
from influencing the decision whether to have an abortion in the first place.
For example, they prohibit tissue donors from deciding who will receive a
tissue transplant and outlaw payment to women who decide to donate.
What's more, the research has produced lifesaving results. Medical science
has used tissue remaining from elective abortions for decades, producing such
breakthroughs as the polio vaccine. In the case of Parkinson's, the ban
delayed progress, but now the research is beginning to bear fruit.
Scientists are confident an effective treatment using transplanted cells
will emerge. So the question the pro-life community has faced is: If remains
from a legal abortion can save lives, should the tissue be made available to
scientists--or thrown away? When staunch pro-life senators like Strom
Thurmond, Connie Mack and then-Majority Leader Bob Dole reviewed these facts
in March 1992, they voted for the research. Dole put it most memorably:
Supporting the research was the "true pro-life position." Every time the
issue has come up, Congress has supported the research by large, bipartisan
majorities.
As for McCain, initially he was less supportive of the research than Thurmond
and the others. In his first vote, he joined with some other pro-life
senators who took a harder line, opposing any bill containing the research no
matter what, on the theory that nothing positive should follow from an
abortion.
Eventually, however, his votes began to join the pro-research side. Why?
Because, he says, he simultaneously was watching his longtime friend Rep.
Morris K. Udall waste away from Parkinson's in a hospital bed. This
experience eventually drove McCain to accept the role of Republican sponsor
of the nation's first Parkinson's research legislation. With Sen. Paul
Wellstone -- who watched both parents suffer and die of Parkinson's -- McCain
led the Morris K. Udall Parkinson's Research Act to passage in 1997.
Nothing in this record suggests a pro-abortion leaning. The Udall bill never
even mentions fetal tissue, which is only a small part of the Parkinson's
research portfolio, but the Right to Life Committee attack links the two and
concludes that McCain's support for the bill weakens his pro-life
credentials. That's a leap that can't be defended.
If McCain suffers politically because of this attack, the real victims will
be millions of Americans like me -- with Parkinson's, spinal cord injuries,
blindness--who hope for a breakthrough in medical research. The explosion of
medical technology is offering new hope for myriad incurable disorders. In
some cases, though, as with stem cell research, new ethical, religious and
legal questions are raised, and Congress will be in the middle of the debate.
When that happens, Americans deserve the same thoughtful deliberation
Congress gave the fetal tissue debate, sifting out simplistic, sound-bite
conclusions and groundless accusations, until the core issues can be
addressed.
The writer is president of the Parkinson's Action Network.
© Copyright 2000 The Washington Post Company
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A DIFFERENT NEWS RELEASE:
On the human embryo front, last week, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-NM, a strong
supporter of medical research and chair of the Senate Budget Committee,
Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, presidential candidate and chair of the Senate
Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott, R-MS, were among 20 Senators who signed a letter to the
National Institutes of Health opposing the agency's plan to fund
experiments with stem cells derived from human embryos. Last year, a
similar effort attracted the signatures of only seven Senators.
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