First Lady Bashes Kerry Stem Cell Stance

Bill's Comment: Despite the date of the article, and the passing of Christopher Reeve, this article holds merit to this day.
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First Lady Bashes Kerry Stem Cell Stance

c. 8/9/04

By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer

LANGHORNE, Pa. - First lady Laura Bush defended her husband's policy on embryonic stem cell research Monday, calling Democratic rival John Kerry (news - web sites)'s criticism "ridiculous" and accusing proponents of overstating the potential for medical breakthroughs.

"We don't even know that stem cell research will provide cures for anything — much less that it's very close" to yielding major advances, Bush said.

The first lady weighed in on the highly charged political and scientific issue on the third anniversary of Bush's decision to limit federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to only the 78 stem cell lines in existence Aug. 9, 2001.

Religious groups oppose the scientific work in which culling of stem cells kill the embryos, equating that with abortion, and had urged Bush not to be the first president to fund the research — even with limits.

Proponents of the science, including former first lady Nancy Reagan and 58 Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, argue that it could lead to cures to diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer's. Former President Reagan suffered from the latter for a decade before his death June 5 due to related pneumonia.

They and many members of the medical community contend that only a handful of those initial 78 stem cell lines are still available under Bush's policy, as opposed to the more than 100 that have been created worldwide since Bush's decision and could be studied under more wide-open rules.

With polls showing overwhelming support for stem cell research, Kerry has promised to give scientists more freedom. He has used the word ban to describe Bush's actions when what the president has done is limit the research.

"That's so ridiculous," Laura Bush said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's one of the myths that start during a campaign."

Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said Bush's restrictions apply to 99.9 percent of potential stem cell lines that could be studied. "If that's not a ban," he said, "we don't know what is."

Unusually combative, the first lady said Kerry was trying to make a political issue out of her husband's policy "without saying what's right. I imagine he knows better."

Like other Bush-Cheney campaign surrogates, Bush credited her husband with being the first president to use taxpayer money for the research. That is true, perhaps only because the science is so new. The policy of Democratic President Clinton (news - web sites) allowed taxpayer money to be used in the research of any stem cell lines, but he never funded the nascent research. Bush invested $25 million in limited research.

Kerry's running mate, Sen. John Edwards (news - web sites) of North Carolina, said Monday marked "a sad anniversary" because the Bush administration "put restrictions in place that dramatically undermine our efforts to find cures for diseases."

Edwards, in a conference call with reporters, said Kerry would reverse Bush's policy, invest $100 million for research and establish ethical guidelines for the science.

In a speech to the Pennsylvania Medical Society, which endorsed her husband, Bush said policy-makers must be aware of the "ethical and moral implications" of the research.

Afterward, the first lady said she was not singling out the Reagan family, several of whom have called for the restrictions to be lifted. Ron Reagan spoke out against Bush's policy at the Democratic National Convention last month, urging delegates to cast a vote for stem cell research in November — a tacit endorsement of Kerry.

"It's not fair" to raise false hopes "because stem cell research is very, very preliminary," said Bush. Alzheimer's contributed to the death of her father in the 1990s.

Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Secretary Tommy Thompson also defended Bush's policy, saying the administration "opened the doors for the first time to federal taxpayer funding for human embryonic stem cell research."

Embryonic stem cells are master cells that form during the early days after conception and can turn into any tissue in the body. Many scientists hope to one day harness them to grow replacement tissue to treat diabetes, spinal cord injuries and other diseases.

A poll by the University of Pennsylvania National Annenberg Election Survey found that 64 percent of Americans favor federal funding of embryonic stem cell research while 28 percent oppose it. Independent voters, crucial in a close election, also back using taxpayers' dollars while slightly more than half of Republicans support it, according to the survey released Monday.

While Bush's actions forbid federal dollars, it does not stop private funding of stem cell research. In an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine (news - web sites), Dr. George Q. Daley, a leading stem cell researcher, said that research has struggled without federal dollars.

"The president's policy has severely curtailed opportunities for U.S. scientists to study the cell lines that have since been established, many of which have unique attributes or represent invaluable models of human disease."