House Dives Into Stem Cell Research Debate

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ignoring President Bush's veto threat, the House plunged into the dispute over stem cell research Tuesday, debating a bill that supporters said could accelerate cures for diseases but opponents viewed as akin to abortion.

Republican leaders offered as an alternative a measure that would provide millions of taxpayer dollars for studies on stem cells derived from adults and umbilical cord blood rather than human embryos.

"This is the right stem cell bill,'' said Majority Leader Tom DeLay. He urged members to reject the other bill, which he said would force taxpayers to finance "the dismemberment of living, distinct human beings.''

Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., said he didn't "need a lecture from the majority leader on moral and ethical leadership,'' a reference to questions that have been raised about DeLay's travel, fundraising and associations with a lobbyist now under federal criminal investigation.

Many members of both parties planned to vote for both measures, saying that together they represented hope for the largest number of people critically ill with diseases that scientists say could be treated or even cured through stem cell research.

To support only one measure, said Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio., would be to "offer hope to some and sympathy to others.''

The more controversial bill, sponsored by Reps. Mike Castle, R-Del., and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., would lift Bush's 2001 ban on federal funding for new research using stem cells from embryos that had not already been destroyed before August 2001.

Bush has promised to veto the measure if passed by Congress.

"This bill would take us across a critical ethical line by creating new incentives for the ongoing destruction of emerging human life,'' he said during a ceremony with children who had been "adopted'' as frozen embryos. "Crossing this line would be a great mistake.''

In the absence of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override a veto, the House vote on the Castle-DeGette bill was intended mostly as a show of force to help propel it through the Senate and, the sponsors hope, into compromise talks with the White House.

In the Senate, Arlen Specter, R-Pa. and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, asked Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to immediately bring the stem cell issue to the Senate floor. Backers of embryonic stem cell research said the measure was supported by 60 senators, enough to break a filibuster by opponents, and could even get a two-thirds majority to that would be enough to overpower a presidential veto.

The floor discussion often echoed the emotional terms of the abortion debate and Terri Schiavo's right-to-die case.

Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, a doctor of obstetrics, played the sound of a fetal heartbeat over the House speaker system, declaring, "This is what it's all about, folks.''

Supporters said many of the embryos that would be studied would be discarded otherwise rather than implanted in the wombs of surrogate mothers. The moral obligation, supporters said, was on Congress to fund research that could lead to cures for diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

"Being pro-life also means fighting for policies that will eliminate pain and suffering,'' said Rep. James R. Langevin, D-R.I., who was paralyzed at 16 in a gun accident.

The bill favored by GOP leaders and Bush was widely supported by members of both parties. Sponsored by Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Artur Davis, D-Ala., it would provide $79 million to increase stem cell research using umbilical cord blood and establish a national database for patients looking for matches. It also would clear the way for studies on stem cells derived from adults.

The two address very different procedures.

Blood saved from newborns' umbilical cords is rich in a type of stem cells that produce blood in the same manner that transplanted bone marrow produces it. The Institute of Medicine recently estimated that cord blood could help treat about 11,700 Americans a year with leukemia and other devastating diseases, yet most is routinely discarded.

The Castle-DeGette bill deals with embryonic stem cells, which are the building blocks for every tissue in the body. Attempting to harness those stem cells' regenerative powers is in very early research stages, but many scientists believe it has the potential to one day create breakthrough treatments.