The New York Times: Obama is Leaving Some Stem Cell Issues to Congress
Obama is Leaving Some Stem Cell Issues to Congress
Monday, March 9, 2009
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
WASHINGTON — While lifting the Bush administration's restrictions onfederally financed human embryonic stem cell research, President Obamaintends to avoid the thorniest question in the debate: whether taxpayerdollars should be used to experiment on embryos themselves, two senioradministration officials said Sunday.
Obama is Leaving Some Stem Cell Issues to Congress
Monday, March 9, 2009
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
WASHINGTON — While lifting the Bush administration's restrictions onfederally financed human embryonic stem cell research, President Obamaintends to avoid the thorniest question in the debate: whether taxpayerdollars should be used to experiment on embryos themselves, two senioradministration officials said Sunday.
The officials, who provideddetails of the announcement Mr. Obama will make Monday at the WhiteHouse, said the president would leave it to Congress to determinewhether the long-standing legislative ban on federal financing forhuman embryo experiments should also be overturned.
Yet,people on both sides of the stem cell debate say Mr. Obama'sannouncement could lead to a reconsideration of the ban on CapitolHill, an idea so controversial and fraught with ethical implicationsthat the mere discussion of it would have been unthinkable just a fewmonths ago, when President George W. Bush was in office.
Theban, known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, first became law in 1996,and has been renewed by Congress every year since. It specifically bansthe use of tax dollars to create human embryos — a practice that isroutine in private fertility clinics — or for research in which embryosare destroyed, discarded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury.
For a time, the ban stood in the way of taxpayer-financed embryonicstem cell research, because embryos are destroyed when stem cells areextracted from them. But in August 2001, in a careful compromise,President Bush opened the door a tiny crack, by ordering that taxdollars could be used for studies on a small number of lines, orcolonies, of stem cells already extracted from embryos — so long asfederal researchers did not do the extraction themselves.
OnMonday, Mr. Obama will throw open the door much farther with anexecutive order that will "make clear that the government intends tosupport" human embryonic stem cell research, said Harold Varmus, thepresident of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who advises Mr.Obama on science matters.
To the delight of patients' groupsand scientists, the order will allow research on hundreds of stem celllines already in existence, as well as ones yet to be created,typically from embryos left over from fertility treatments that wouldotherwise be discarded.
The order comes just in time forresearchers to take advantage of money in Mr. Obama's economic recoverypackage and use it for stem cell studies. But because of theDickey-Wicker amendment, federal researchers would still be unable tocreate their own stem cell lines.
Mr. Obama has no power tooverturn the Dickey-Wicker ban. Only Congress, which attaches the banto appropriations bills, can overturn it. Mr. Obama has not taken aposition on the ban and does not intend to, Melody C. Barnes, his chiefdomestic policy adviser, said Sunday. The president believes stem cellresearch "should be done in compliance with federal law," she said,adding that Mr. Obama recognizes the divisiveness of the issue.
"We are committed to pursuing stem cell research quite responsibly butwe recognize there are a range of beliefs on this," Ms. Barnes said.
Because embryonic stem cells are capable of developing into any type ofcell or tissue in the body, many scientists and advocates for patientsbelieve they hold the possibility for treatments and cures for ailmentsas varied as diabetes and heart disease. Some researchers say stemcells may someday be used to treat catastrophic injuries, like damageto the spinal cord.
Mr. Bush twice vetoed legislation that would have expanded his 2001 policy.
Although Mr. Obama's action on Monday has broad bipartisan support, itcould still be overturned by a successor so House Democrats areexpected to draft legislation that would codify the president'sexecutive order.
But with Mr. Obama revisiting the Bushpolicy, Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado and aleading advocate for embryonic stem cell research, said Sunday in aninterview that overturning the embryo experiment ban might not be asfar-fetched as some critics imagine.
Ms. DeGette said thefirst move for lawmakers would be to turn the steps Mr. Obama takes byexecutive order on Monday into law. But she said she was also talkingto her colleagues about overturning the broader Dickey-Wickerrestriction.
"Dickey-Wicker is 13 years old now, and I thinkwe need to review these policies," Ms. DeGette said. "I've alreadytalked to several pro-life Democrats about Dickey-Wicker, and theyseemed open to the concept of reversing the policy if we could showthat it was necessary to foster this research."
A senior HouseDemocratic leadership aide, who was not authorized to speak publiclyabout the issue, said overturning the ban "would be difficult, but notimpossible," adding, "It's not something that we would do right away,but it's something that we would look at."
Fertilityresearchers also believe the climate is ripe to allow federal money fortheir work, especially in light of the recent controversy over thebirth of octuplets in California, said Sean Tipton, a spokesman for theAmerican Society for Reproductive Medicine.
"I think we'rethrilled that the president is going to lift the restrictions onembryonic stem cell research," Mr. Tipton said Sunday. "It is clear,though, that Congress needs to remove the restrictions it puts on otherforms of embryo research."
Already abortion opponents arebracing for a battle. "The administration now steps onto a very steep,very slippery slope," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director forthe National Right to Life Committee. "Many researchers will never besatisfied only with the so-called leftover embryos."
OneRepublican lawmaker, Representative Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey,is calling Mr. Obama "the abortion president," and is planning his ownevent on Monday to protest Mr. Obama's new stem cell policy.
Mr. Smith said in an interview Sunday that he did not think lawmakerswould go along with overturning the embryo experiment ban.
"Idon't think it will fly because the movement in the country is in favorof life," he said. "For Congress to say that the new guinea pig will behuman embryos, most Americans will find that highly offensive."
Mr. Obama's announcement on Monday will be part of a broader initiativeto make good on his pledge to separate science and politics. Dr.Varmus, a former director of the National Institutes of Health who is aco-chairman of a panel that advises Mr. Obama on science issues, saidthe president would issue a memorandum to "restore public confidence inthe process by which scientific policy is used to guide governmentaction," by directing his administration to draft guidelines for theuse of scientific information and the appointment of outside scienceadvisers.
In reversing the stem cell policy Mr. Bush put inplace in August 2001, Mr. Obama will direct the National Institutes ofHealth to come up with new stem cell research guidelines within 120days.
Ms. DeGette said she is already talking to the White House about what legislation codifying the executive order might say.
"It's a wonderful development tomorrow," she said, "but it's really the first step in opening up ethical cell-based research."