Editor’s Note: The CPF continues to support federal funding for stem cell research, understanding the great potential this research has in treating - or possibly curing - a wide range of diseases, including IPF. The CPF strongly believes that physicians and scientists, with proper ethical oversight, should be allowed to explore new approaches to treating, and ultimately curing diseases through stem cell research. We encourage our members to contact their Congressional leaders to voice your support for these Bills.

Long Negotiations Lead to Senate Considering a Trio of Stem Cell Research Bills

By Kate Schuler, Congressional Quarterly

Less than a year after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist rocked his party by throwing his support behind a bill to expand embryonic stem cell research, the Tennessee Republican reached an agreement Thursday with supporters and opponents to have votes on three approaches to the issue.

The deal is the result of almost yearlong negotiations over how to bring embryonic stem cell legislation to a vote in the Senate, where conservatives oppose the research they equate with abortion, but lawmakers up for re-election are looking to win favor with a public that in polls has shown broad support for embryonic stem cell research, even among Republican voters. Under the agreement, Frist will bring three bills to the floor that would not be subject to amendments but would need 60 votes for passage. “In all likelihood,” the bills would come to the floor in July, he said.

One of the three is a House-passed measure (HR 810) that would allow federal funding for research on stem cells taken from surplus embryos at in vitro fertilization clinics. President Bush has threatened to veto any such legislation that comes to his desk.

Another (S 2754) — by Pennsylvania Republicans Rick Santorum, an anti-abortion conservative, and Arlen Specter, an abortion rights moderate — would encourage research into ways to obtain stem cells with the same properties as embryonic stem cells, which can turn into almost any type of cell in the body, without destroying embryos.

The third (S 3504), by Santorum and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., would make it illegal to perform research on embryos from “fetal farms,” where human embryos could be gestated in a non-human uterus or from human pregnancies created specifically for the purpose of research. Brownback has been a vocal opponent of embryonic stem cell research and has introduced several bills aimed to prevent cloning as well.

“I am pro-life. I personally believe human life begins at conception,” Frist said on the floor just before the Senate recessed for the July Fourth recess. “But it isn’t just about faith, it’s a matter of science.”

Frist’s statement underscores the complexities of the issue that has split the Republican Party. When the House passed its bill in May 2005 by a vote of 238-194, 50 Republicans broke with their leadership and voted in favor of federal funding for the research. During floor debate, several GOP lawmakers noted their anti-abortion voting record but said the illnesses of friends and relatives motivated them to support the bill.

Scientists say stem cells have the potential to help understand and offer cures for such illnesses as diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, some cancers and possibly Alzheimer’s. Support for the research has also been bolstered by former first lady Nancy Reagan, whose backing has raised the profile of the issue.

Just before the August recess last year, Frist said he supported the House-passed embryonic stem cell bill, a shift in his public stance at the time after he had openly backed Bush’s policy of not funding research on any newly derived embryonic stem cells. But at the same time, he refused to consider the legislation by itself, instead insisting on considering it in tandem with measures offered by opponents that could potentially derail the House bill.

Current methods of extracting embryonic stem cells require the destruction of an embryo; Bush issued an executive order in August 2001 barring the use of federal funds for research on embryonic stem cells derived after that date. But last year, the President’s Council on Bioethics issued a paper examining four potential ways of extracting cells without destroying embryos.

That idea gave GOP leaders an outlet to offer their members a vote on the issue, without endorsing the more contentious embryonic stem cell bill. The Santorum-Specter bill provides that avenue and for Santorum, who faces a difficult re-election race, it’s a savvy strategy. The bill has the potential to draw away support for the House bill by giving cover to senators who want to tell constituents they have done something on stem cells without angering the conservative base.

Because of the potential for draining support, the deal to consider the three bills at once is not exactly what Democrats were hoping for, but “we’ll take what we can get,” said Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. He called it “an important step forward.”

Even if the Senate clears the House-passed bill, it would be the the first piece of legislation Bush vetoes if he keeps his promise. Supporters would have to work to win the two-thirds vote necessary to override a veto in each chamber.