Charlotte and listmembers,
I've searched a number of magazine and newspaper indexes and have not
been able to find a direct statement by Gov.Bush, only through
"spokespersons." The relevant sections from these articles are reprinted
below. As you will read, Bush is being very careful about what he says on
stem cell research - and it seems many members of Congress do not want to
get into this debate this right before the election..
If anyone would like to read the complete version of any of these
articles, write to me off-list, and please indicate whhich article(s).
LInda
FROM: The Boston Globe
August 24, 2000, Thursday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A1
HEADLINE: ABORTION FOES SEE POLITICS IN STEM-CELL STUDY POLICY
BYLINE: By Mary Leonard, Globe Staff
" WASHINGTON - Abortion opponents took aim yesterday at new federal
guidelines on stem-cell research, accusing the Clinton administration of
playing
presidential politics with a science they call unethical and unlawful,
and
vowing to overturn the action in the courts or Congress.
The dilemma over research that has life-saving potential but that
destroys
human embryos has divided the major presidential candidates. Governor
George W. Bush of Texas opposes the use of federal funds for it, while
Vice President Al
Gore supports it...
" The issue could emerge in the campaign because it touches on
abortion.
"It will be easy for this to become a political football," said Ronald
Green,
who directs the Ethics Institute at Dartmouth College. "And because there
is not
a large constituency for patient-care groups, it is prone to get more
emotional
criticism than emotional support."
Representative Jay Dickey, an Arkansas Republican who sponsored the 1996
funding ban, called the National Institutes of Health rules a "boldfaced
violation of the law." He said in an interview that he will seek either a
court-ordered injunction or will try to withhold funds appropriated for
the NIH
if the agency makes a grant for stem-cell research...
Gore, who supports abortion rights, is counting on raising the
abortion issue
often to help him win win over independent voters, particularly women.
Aides to
Gore and his running mate, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut,
said both
men support the NIH funding guidelines.
Bush, who opposes abortion except in cases of rape and incest, and to
save
the life of the mother, is wooing the same voters and is conducting a
campaign
in which the issue plays little or no role. "Governor Bush opposes
federal
funding for stem-cell research when it involves destroying a living,
human
embryo," said Ray Sullivan, a spokesman for the campaign.
Bush supporters say that as president, he would issue an executive
order
overturning the policy. "The question for the next president is whether
he is
going to enforce the plain letter of the law," said Douglas Johnson,
legislative
director of the National Right to Life Committee, which has endorsed
Bush.
An overheated debate in Congress this fall may not benefit Bush, who
asserts
that he is a compassionate conservative. "
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
Subject: The Fetal-Tissue Frontier.
Source: National Journal, Feb 26, 2000 v32 i9 p616.
Title : The Fetal-Tissue Frontier.
Author: NEIL MUNRO
"Republicans are torn between two constituencies--the
high-tech research companies that oppose research restrictions, and the
social
conservatives who are keen to stigmatize abortion and abortion-related
research. Abortion-rights groups oppose any new restrictions. Given this
incendiary mix, it is not surprising that many legislators won't want to
deal
with fetal-tissue research, said Adams, who championed the 1993 law. Many
legislators, he said, "are going to be in the middle of a debate that
they
don't want to be in the middle of."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------
Source: National Journal, August 12, 2000 v32 i33 p2618.
Title: BUSH AND GORE: WHERE THEY STAND.
BUSH
STEM-CELL Supports current curbs against using
RESEARCH federal funds for research on stem cells
taken from human embryos, but has also
said he would not restrict commercial
technology development.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
Clinton Hails Embryo Cell Test Rules; Controversial Guidelines Would
Allow
First Federal Funding for Research
[FINAL Edition]
The Washington Post
Washington, D.C.
Aug 24, 2000
Authors: Rick Weiss
Pagination: A.11
"The stem cell debate also spilled over into the presidential campaign,
as Republican nominee George W. Bush made clear his opposition to the
administration's guidelines. "The governor opposes federal funding for
stem cell research that involves destroying a living human embryo," said
campaign spokesman Ray Sullivan.
The new guidelines forbid the use of federal funds to destroy human
embryos directly, but they permit federal research on stem cells taken
from embryos by privately financed researchers. In Bush's view, Sullivan
said, that arrangement still amounts to federal support of embryo
destruction.
Scientists and patient advocates took issue with that perspective
yesterday,
and some expressed fear that if elected president, Bush might sign an
executive
order banning the research.
A campaign spokesman for Vice President Gore said he "supports the
recommendations," and the party platform approved in Los Angeles states:
"We should allow stem cell research to make important new discoveries."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
This full article was posted to the list yesterday:
FROM: United Press International
September 22, 2000, Friday
SECTION: GENERAL NEWS
LENGTH: 369 words
HEADLINE: Bush White House would end stem cell research
BYLINE: By MARK KUKIS
DATELINE: SUN CITY, Fla., Sept. 22
If elected president, George W. Bush would end stem cell research
involving human embryos, a controversial practice that was cleared last
month for
federal funding by the National Institutes of Health, an aide to the
Republican
presidential candidate said Friday.
"It's something we would take steps to remedy," a Bush campaign health
policy adviser said, on condition of anonymity, as the candidate
suggested an
increase in NIH funding by $67 billion over 10 years.
The adviser said Bush's public stance against medical studies using
tissue from frozen embryos would lead a Bush administration to cut off
federal
funds for embryonic stem cell research, which the NIH approved in August
by
lifting a yearlong moratorium...."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
And finally -- why we can be sure that the research by the biotech
industry will continue:
AAP NEWSFEED
September 28, 2000, Thursday
SECTION: Nationwide General News; Finance Wire
LENGTH: 573 words
HEADLINE: BresaGen in $15.3m share placement, for Parkinson's work
"... The market for an effective new treatment of Parkinson's
Disease has been estimated to be over $ US1 billion ($ A1.87 billion) per
year."
