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Article Launched: 07/25/2005 02:18:00 AM
jim spencer
As stem-cell bill languishes, so do the ill and dying
By Jim Spencer
Denver Post Columnist
Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette is not surprised that the U.S. Senate has yet to debate the stem- cell research bill she shepherded through the House of Representatives two months ago.
She's disappointed.
Disappointed but determined.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist had said he would let the Senate version of DeGette's bill be discussed.
It hasn't happened yet.
The stalling tactics are so obvious that Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter last week threatened to attach the stem-cell bill to an appropriations bill and get it a hearing.
Once more, America lets politics and religion trump science.
Once more, sick and dying people pay the price.
"Bill Frist is running for president," DeGette said. "He's trying to cater to the far right," which considers embryonic stem-cell research abortion.
Frist is also trying to protect George Bush from having to make good on a veto threat that will placate the flat- Earth forces in his conservative base. Such a presidential veto will alienate mainstream Americans who appreciate and rely on scientific research.
"This is an issue that isn't going away," DeGette said. "It's an issue with growing public support."
Incorporating stem-cell research into an unrelated, "must-pass" Senate bill is clearly a parliamentary maneuver.
"That's essentially what we had to do in the House to get a hearing," DeGette said. "We told (the leadership) we'd attach the stem-cell bill to any moving piece of legislation."
Instead, House leaders decided to let the bill rise or fall on its merits.
It won in the House, and has an excellent chance of winning in the Senate, where Republicans such as Specter and Orrin Hatch of Utah support it.
"I think it would pass if it came to a vote," DeGette predicted. "Close to 60 senators signed a letter to the president (calling for expanded stem-cell research)."
Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard does not disclose his position on bills passed by the House but not yet introduced in the Senate, said Allard's spokeswoman, Angela DeRocha.
In a statement released Friday, Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar had no problem taking a stand: "I will support the stem- cell research bill that is soon to be before the Senate so that we can finally move beyond the rhetoric dividing this issue to the hope-giving results of morally and ethically guided research."
Polls show that most people in this country want more stem-cell research. That's because so many of them stand to benefit from it. An estimated
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100 million Americans are affected by or know someone with diseases, conditions and injuries that might be helped by stem-cell research.
"Since the bill passed the House," DeGette said, "hundreds of people have thanked me. They say, 'My father has Parkinson's.' Or 'My brother has Lou Gehrig's disease.' Or 'I have family members with diabetes."'
Spinal cord injuries, cancer - just about every patient can benefit.
DeGette's bill needs a Senate hearing. It allows the federal government to pay researchers to study embryonic stem-cell lines created from embryos that will otherwise be thrown away by fertility clinics. Donors of those embryos must consent to this research. No one gets paid for the embryos.
The flat-Earthers call this abortion. They argue that a sperm fertilized by an egg is a person. They argue that artificial insemination is wrong. They argue that frozen embryos should be stored indefinitely. And finally, they argue that if a choice must be made between discarding frozen embryos or letting them help cure diseases and ease the suffering of real human beings, it's more moral to throw the embryos away.
That's not just narrow-minded; it's medieval.
It's time for Bill Frist and other politicians to listen to people like Rayilyn Brown.
A self-described "ovarian cancer survivor" and "Parkinson's disease prisoner," Brown asks only for enlightenment.
"I am very disturbed by the confusion of scientific and religious truth," Brown said. "People seem more ignorant than ever, and I am one of those people who suffers because of religious agendas stifling stem-cell research.
"I don't expect a cure in the U.S. in my lifetime, but the Dark Ages lasted a thousand years."
Jim Spencer's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or [log in to unmask]
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