From Kaisernetwork.org Daily Reports.
POLITICS & POLICY
Reporters Question Bush Staff on President-Elect's Position on Stem Cell
Research
Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer yesterday "refused" to answer
reporters' questions on the president elect's position on "budding"
government stem cell research efforts, other than to quote Bush's
statements during the campaign, the AP/Austin American-Statesman reports.
Bush "would oppose federally funded research for experimentation on
embryonic stem cells that require live human embryos to be discarded or
destroyed," Fleischer said, but the press secretary would not indicate
whether Bush would attempt to block the National Institutes of Health,
which last August issued funding guidelines for stem cell research and is
now accepting grant applications for research to be conducted on cells
harvested by private researchers.
Federal law prohibits the use of government funds to derive embryonic
stem cells; however, the new NIH guidelines allow federally funded
scientists to use cells extracted by private researchers from frozen
embryos "destined to be discarded by fertility clinics." Antiabortion
activists call such research "immoral because the extraction of stem
cells kills [the embryo]," which they see as a potential human life.
They argue in favor of using cells from adult tissue.
Dr. John Gearhart, a Johns Hopkins University researcher, said that
either way, "things do not look good" for embryonic stem cell research.
Bush spokesperson Scott McClelland noted that "the president-elect's
position is clear ... we intend to review all rules and executive orders
implemented by the Clinton administration" (Sobieraj, AP/Austin
American-Statesman, 1/5).
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