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News Published Wednesday, July 18, 2001 Stem cell battle in D.C. U.S. aid for research is in question as House panel hears debate By Sheryl Gay Stolberg NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON --Luke and Mark Borden, 9-month-old twins from California who were adopted when they were still embryos in frozen storage at a fertility clinic, came to the Capitol on Tuesday to help in a campaign urging President Bush not to permit federal financing of stem cell research that destroys human embryos. Their father, John, held up the boys before a packed hearing in the House of Representatives and asked his wife, Lucinda, to display a picture of three tiny balls of cells: their sons as embryos in a petri dish, along with a third embryo that did not survive to birth. "Which one of my children would you kill?" Borden asked pointedly. "Which one would you take?" Mollie and Jackie Singer, 12-year-old twins from Las Vegas who describe themselves as devout Roman Catholics, came to the Capitol to urge Bush to take the opposite position. They clutched notes written in careful print as they spoke before the same lawmakers. Mollie has diabetes, and Jackie says she wants stem cell research to spare her sister the debilitating effects of the disease. "Since Mollie was 4 years old I've watched her struggle with diabetes," Jackie said. "It's so hard." So it went in the passionate fight over embryonic stem cell research in Washington, with advocates on each side of the issue using dueling images to put a human face on a question that has vexed the Bush administration: Is it appropriate to use taxpayer money to conduct experiments that may save human life when those experiments, in the view of opponents, require the destruction of human life? As Bush weighs a decision, the issue is heating up in Congress. Reps. Mark Souder, R-Ind., and David Weldon, R-Fla., both of whom are opposed to the research, presided over Tuesday's session before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Reform. Today, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who favors the research, will lead a meeting of a subcommittee of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. These hearings are forcing lawmakers to announce their opinions on stem cell research. Members of the House who attended Tuesday's hearing appeared split. Several spoke of relatives who suffer from diseases that might someday be treated or cured as a result of the research. One prominent lawmaker who had not previously declared his views, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., his party's leader, has now done so, saying at a news conference Monday that he is opposed to "farming or harvesting embryonic stem cells." Embryonic stem cells are extracted from microscopic embryos that are no bigger than 200 to 300 cells. The stem cells have the potential to develop into any type of cell or tissue in the human body, and many scientists say they have great potential for repairing or replacing damaged organs. The issue before Bush is whether to accept, overturn or revise a ruling by the Clinton administration that will permit research on cells derived from embryos that have been kept frozen at fertility clinics, so long as the scientists do not work on the embryos themselves. A decision is expected in the next several weeks. There are tens of thousands of such embryos in frozen storage, and the idea of embryo adoption, in which genetic parents donate their embryos to other infertile couples, is new. Marlene Strege, whose 21/2-year-old daughter, Hannah, was adopted this way, told lawmakers she had come to Washington to get the word out and was hoping to meet with Bush. "Are you scheduled to meet with the president?" Weldon asked. "Well," Strege said, "we're here. Do you have any connections?' "I've been trying to get an appointment myself," Weldon replied, adding he had not been able to. "So, I guess, get in line." Those against embryonic stem cell research argue there is another ethical alternative: using adult stem cells, which can be derived from blood, bone marrow, body fat and certain organs and can yield the specialized cell types of the tissue from which it originated. Tuesday's duel over stem cell research also featured scientists who argued the merits of one type of research over the other. Last month, the National Institutes of Health provided Bush with a confidential study that said both avenues promised "a dazzling array" of therapies. But the report said embryonic stem cells offered certain advantages, including greater flexibility and the ability to proliferate indefinitely in the lab. That report was made public by the NIH on Tuesday. But in the battle for public opinion, it was patients, not scientists and studies, who made the case for either side. Among them was Nathan Salley, a 16-year-old leukemia patient, who told lawmakers his cancer had gone into remission in the wake of an experimental treatment involving an infusion of stem cells from umbilical cord blood. These cells are considered adult stem cells. "I am living proof that there are promising technically and useful alternatives to embryonic stem cell research and that embryos do not need to be killed," Nathan said. As he spoke, his parents sat behind him, clutching hands; his mother's lip trembled and she fought back tears. Not long after Nathan spoke, Joan Samuelson, a Parkinson's disease patient, told lawmakers that embryonic stem cells are her hope for a cure, and she added that not all frozen embryos would necessarily be adopted because some couples would prefer to give their embryos up for research. Then Samuelson directed lawmakers' attention to another woman sitting quietly in the audience, Milly Kondracke, the wife of journalist Morton Kondracke, whose new book, "Saving Milly," is a painful account of how Parkinson's has ravaged his wife. Milly Kondracke, frail and unable to speak, sat in a wheelchair, tended by a companion, while Samuelson invoked her name and complained that politics is delaying a cure. "I don't know that I can hang on that long," Samuelson said. "I pray Milly can." SOURCE: The Contra Costa Times http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/stories_news/stemcell_20010718.htm * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn