Were making headway guys and gals. While I am not jumping up and down yet lets just say I am optimisticly cautious about this bills chances of passing. I just cant wait to the day that there will be a cure for my parkinsons, diabetes and all diseases. Keep your fingers crossed there will be a cure.
House expected to pass bill to lift stem cell limits
BY JEREMY MANIER
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO - (KRT) - Armed with fresh hope of overturning President Bush's limits on federal funding of embryonic stem cell studies, Republican members of Congress held an unusual hearing in a Chicago courtroom Monday to rally support for expanding the controversial research.
It was in some ways a familiar scene at the Dirksen Federal Building, where patients with diabetes, paralysis and Parkinson's disease testified at the unofficial hearing that Bush's policy is hampering work that could lead to treatments for their conditions. Opponents of the research limitations have sought a change ever since Bush imposed them in 2001.
What's different this time is that lawmakers in the U.S. House believe they have more than enough votes to rescind the limits. The bill could come to a vote as early as next week, and even opponents agree it's likely to pass. Together with the broad support such a move has in the Senate, the stage may be set for the measure to reach Bush. He has yet to veto a bill as president.
Current rules allow federal funding of embryonic research only if the stem cells were extracted from embryos before Aug. 9, 2001. Scientists say that rules out some 127 recently created stem cell lines that could have advantages over the older cells, many of which are contaminated with animal tissue and could not be used in people. The new law would permit funding of cell lines regardless of when they were created.
The lack of dissenting voices at Monday's hearing - contrary to the custom in official congressional testimony - incensed lawmakers and activists who are opposed to research involving embryos. Aides to Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who is helping to shepherd the bill, said the hearing was intended solely to make the case for increasing stem cell research funding.
One of the witnesses was 9-year-old Clara Livingston, a diabetes patient who uses an insulin pump to keep her disease in check. Livingston's mother, Gretchen, said they hope that stem cells, which can be coaxed into forming any type of tissue, could offer a way of replacing the diseased cells that cause diabetes.
"Without your help, my daughter suffers," Livingston said.
Groups opposed to abortion rights are campaigning against any increase in funding of embryonic research because it relies on the destruction of early human embryos.
Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., who is helping lead the fight against the new bill in the House, said in a phone interview that the bill's supporters are ignoring other options, such as adult stem cells, that do not require embryos.
"It's almost like they have a lust to kill embryos or something," Weldon said.
But Weldon conceded the bill's chances are good. Sponsors of the legislation estimate they have more than 230 votes - well over the 218 votes required for passage.
"I would say it's most likely to pass," Weldon said.
To counter the argument that adult cells are valid alternatives, the three representatives who held Monday's hearing - Kirk; Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill.; and Rep. Joe Schwarz, R-Mich., _invited two researchers who specialize in adult stem cells to explain the advantages of embryonic cells.
Dr. Steven Teitelbaum of Washington University at St. Louis, who developed an adult stem cell treatment for a lethal bone disease, said embryonic stem cells appear to be more flexible for some uses than the adult variety. The cells come from embryos left over from in vitro fertilization efforts.
"This is not a contest between adult and embryonic stem cells," Teitelbaum said. "This is a contest between us as a society and disease."
Schwarz, who was a surgeon before joining the House this term, said he feels it would be immoral not to do the research, which typically involves week-old embryos no larger than the period at the end of a sentence.
In addition to the potential for therapies, he said U.S. policy has driven researchers to other countries and states, such as California, which permit more liberal funding of stem cell research.
"The U.S. is falling behind, perhaps disastrously behind," Schwarz said.
Monday's hearing reflected none of the sharp disagreements that have dogged such research.
One opponent of the work, Kathy Valente of the Illinois chapter of Concerned Women for America, said she contacted Kirk's office to offer comment at the event - a routine practice at official hearings - but was told that only supporters of the bill would be speaking.
"I said, `That's not a hearing, that's a rally,'" Valente said. She said she didn't attend because "I'm not the type of person who likes to crash rallies."
Kirk spokesman Matt Towson did not dispute Valente's description of the event, which proceeded in quasi-official style and ended with Kirk's banging of a judge's gavel. Towson said the hearing will not be part of the congressional record but was meant to educate the public about an issue on which the three lawmakers feel strongly.
The event coincided with the rollout Monday of a $1 million television and print advertising campaign in support of the bill by the centrist Republican Main Street Partnership.
Valente saved some of her criticism for the Republican House leadership that agreed to let the legislation move forward. Aides to Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, confirmed that the leadership has committed to bringing the stem cell bill to a vote soon, perhaps before Memorial Day.
"I'm discouraged that they're allowing this vote to happen," said Valente, who said she contacted the office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., to complain. "We have a pro-life president, and these leaders should be respecting that fact."
Kirk and the other representatives said it's likely that Bush would veto the bill, but anything might happen if it passes the House and the Senate, where supporters could have as many as 60 votes. Bush's position in favor of limits has not wavered, but he has not explicitly threatened a veto.
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© 2005, Chicago Tribune.
Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at
http://www.chicagotribune.comDistributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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