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The source of this article is Wired News: http://tinyurl.com/47hdv First Lady, Edwards Clash Over Bush Stem Cell Policy Monday, August 09, 2004 5:59 p.m. ET By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First lady Laura Bush and Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards clashed on Monday over whether President Bush's restrictions on stem cell research should be maintained or lifted. On the third anniversary of Bush's decision to allow stem cell research only on a limited number of embryonic stem cell lines, the Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is seeking to use the issue to portray Bush as out of touch with mainstream America. The Kerry campaign got a boost when Ron Reagan, son of the late ex-President Ronald Reagan, who died of Alzheimer's, appeared at the Democratic convention last month and said stem cell research "may be the greatest medical breakthrough in our lifetime" and could help save the lives of millions of people who suffer from diabetes and Alzheimer's. Laura Bush told the Pennsylvania Medical Society in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, that Bush's policy "makes it possible for researchers to explore the potential of stem cells, while respecting the ethical and moral implications associated with this research." She said embryonic stem cell research is "very preliminary right now, and the implication that cures for Alzheimer's are around the corner is just not right." "And it's really not fair to the people who are watching a loved one suffer with this," she said, noting her father died of Alzheimer's. Edwards, in a conference call with reporters, vowed that a Kerry administration would reverse Bush's policy and expand stem cell research if elected. "We have a plan to have groundbreaking stem cell research done that can affect millions of Americans. They are blocking that research," Edwards said. He said Kerry would increase stem cell research funding from $25 million to $100 million, with the possibility of much more. Embryonic stem cells, taken from days-old human embryos, have the potential to form any kind of tissue in the body. Researchers hope to learn to use them to create tailor-made transplants to treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other ills. On Aug. 9, 2001, Bush restricted the use of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research to batches, called cell lines, that existed at that time. He went no further out of ethical concerns over creating embryos that would be then destroyed to harvest the stem cells. "It's important that we not go down a dangerous, slippery slope where we divorce ethics from science," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. A Roman Catholic, Kerry disputed the idea his belief that life begins at conception was incompatible with his support of embryonic stem cell research. "It is entirely within ethical bounds to do embryonic stem cell research without violating one's beliefs at all about what life is or where it is and what matters," he told reporters at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. "I think you have to measure it also against the lives you save, against the diseases that you're curing," he said. A New England Journal of Medicine review said the Bush policy was leading to missed opportunities. George Q. Daley, a physician at the Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, said he has access to a stem cell line ineligible for federal research grant money because it was produced after Bush's policy announcement. The line holds promise for making advances against a gene defect known as Fanconi's anemia, "but the President's policy prohibits us from using our federal grants to pursue these avenues." Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn