NatureNews: Stem Cell Inaction Prompts Concern
Stem Cell Inaction Prompts Concern
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
By Meredith Wadman
Colorado congresswoman Diana DeGette had one message for PresidentBarack Obama when she shook his hand on 17 February, moments after hesigned the massive US economic stimulus bill into law. "I just lookedat him and said: 'Mr President, just to reiterate my hope that you willsign an executive order reversing President Bush's ban on [human]embryonic stem-cell research'," says DeGette (Democrat). "He said:'We're gonna do it soon.'"
Stem Cell Inaction Prompts Concern
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
By Meredith Wadman
Colorado congresswoman Diana DeGette had one message for PresidentBarack Obama when she shook his hand on 17 February, moments after hesigned the massive US economic stimulus bill into law. "I just lookedat him and said: 'Mr President, just to reiterate my hope that you willsign an executive order reversing President Bush's ban on [human]embryonic stem-cell research'," says DeGette (Democrat). "He said:'We're gonna do it soon.'"
Those words, and others like themfrom Obama, are doing less and less to placate backers of federalfunding for stem-cell research. During his campaign, Obama promised toreverse President George W. Bush's 2001 policy that strictly limitedfederal funding for the research. Many expected it to be one of Obama'sfirst moves, mirroring President Bill Clinton's lifting of themoratorium on fetal tissue transplantation research just after takingoffice in 1993.
"Obviously, we have concerns and would like tosee this done," says Tony Mazzaschi, interim chief scientific officerat the Association of American Medical Colleges based in Washington DCand a board member at the Coalition for the Advancement of MedicalResearch (CAMR, also Washington-based), an umbrella group ofassociations that back federal funding for the research. "All of ushave been getting pressure from our constituents: 'When is this goingto happen? Is everything okay?'"
On 6 February, CAMR wrote toObama saying it was "concerned" about media reports that presidentialaction was being delayed to coincide with congressional legislation. On4 February, DeGette, together with Michael Castle (Republican,Delaware), introduced such legislation, which would explicitly permitfederal funding for research on stem-cell lines derived with parentalpermission from embryos left over at fertility clinics and otherwiseslated for destruction. And on 18 February, six Republican members ofCongress led by Castle wrote to Obama to "urge that you immediatelylift the current federal restrictions on funding for embryonic stemcell research".
The White House has been by turns affirmingand evasive. Senior presidential adviser David Axelrod, when asked onFox News Sunday on 15 February when the president would enact anexecutive order, replied only that Obama is "considering" such a move.White House spokesman Shin Inouye told Nature last week: "PresidentObama is committed to providing federal support to stem-cell research.His administration will be acting soon to lift the previousrestrictions on this important effort."
Some Washingtoninsiders suggest that there is no more to the delay than a presidentconsumed by a major economic crisis. Others note that the newadministration had (at the time Nature went to press) yet to install aNational Institutes of Health (NIH) director or secretary of health andhuman services — key people the president will need to rely on to enactan executive order and serve as the public face of the administrationon a controversial issue.
Yet others contend that Obama's lackof action five weeks into his presidency highlights the complexity ofthe legal issues involved in reversing the Bush ban, which limitedfederal funding for stem-cell research to a score of lines derivedbefore 9 August 2001.
Louis Guenin, a lecturer on ethics atHarvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, believes that anObama executive order could be successfully challenged in court in theabsence of enacted legislation explicitly approving federal funding forstem-cell research. That, he says, is because of the Dickey–Wickeramendment: a law first enacted by Congress in 1995 and renewed eachyear since, which prohibits US funding of research in which embryos arecreated or destroyed.
"Anyone concerned about complicity inembryo destruction is keen to spot collaboration, inducement, orartifices to mask them," says Guenin. "In view of congressional intentto prevent taxpayer complicity, 'research in which a human embryo orembryos are destroyed' captures any project whose demand for materialsinduces embryo destruction."
Other legal scholars disagreewith Guenin, and point to a 1999 legal opinion by Harriet Rabb, thenthe general counsel at the Department of Health and Human Services,which concluded that federal funding for stem-cell research does notcontravene Dickey–Wicker because the cells themselves are not embryosand research on already derived cells does not destroy embryos. TheRabb opinion has never been tested in court.
Guenin has caughtthe ear of some key scientists, including John Gearhart, director ofthe Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University ofPennsylvania in Philadelphia. During the presidential transition,Gearhart forwarded a 29-page Guenin memo to Harold Varmus, a former NIHdirector and a leading member of the Obama transition team. "I amconcerned that an executive order is not sufficient to prevent whathappened during the Bush administration on stem-cell research," saysGearhart.
Varmus was out of the country and did not respond to an e-mail asking for comment.
George Daley, the associate director of the Stem Cell Program at theChildren's Hospital, Boston, passed the same memo to Alta Charo, aprofessor of law at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and anothertransition-team member. "I think it's an important issue to vet," saysDaley. "We want to make sure we do have all the possible legal rightsto get funding."
Charo said that her role on the transition team prevented her from commenting.
DeGette, for her part, argues that legislation is needed — but not tosubvert court challenges. She wants to prevent Obama's successor fromreversing an Obama executive order. "My main concern is that the wholeissue of embryonic stem-cell research does not become a ping-pongball," she says.