House votes to lift ban on stem cells

WASHINGTON -- Setting up a showdown with the president, the House of Representatives voted Tuesday to lift the Bush administration's restrictions on medical research on human embryos.

The bipartisan legislation, sponsored by Rep. Michael Castle, R- Del., and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., would give federally funded researchers access to surplus embryos from fertility clinics as long as the donors give their consent. It passed 238-194 after a contentious floor debate between those who see embryonic stem cell research as the best hope for millions of suffering patients and those who see only the destruction of a human embryo for science.

The Senate is expected to pass a similar proposal. But President Bush, claiming the bill would encourage researchers to create life and then destroy it, has promised a veto.

Proponents have an uphill battle; overriding Bush's veto would require 290 votes in the House.

"There is more potential here than anything that has ever happened in the history of medicine," Castle said during the floor debate.

Stem cells are the body's building blocks, capable of developing into many different types of cells, including nerves, muscles and organs. Certain types of adult stem cells are already being used to treat diseases such as leukemia. Researchers hope someday to develop stem cell therapies that could regrow nerves in severed spines, replace the faulty insulin-producing cells that cause diabetes and reverse the effects of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

Emotions ran high during the debate. Patients and families joined Castle for a pre-vote rally, sharing wrenching stories about loved ones who died while waiting for a cure or who live with the daily pain of disability.

"No parent should have to look at their child and tell them there are no more options," said Beth Westbrook of Pittsburgh, whose daughter, Katie, died one day after her 15th birthday, after exhausting every available treatment and experimental therapy for her bone cancer.

"I am running out of choices and out of time. I already take medications every 90 minutes . . . and even then sometimes I shake uncontrollably or cannot move at all," said Jackie Hunt Christensen, a mother of two from Minnesota who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease eight years ago. "I know that embryonic stem cells do not guarantee a cure for me or anyone else, but the research being done overseas looks promising."

On the other side, opponents of the Castle bill tried to put a human face on the estimated 8,000 surplus embryos that are currently disposed of as medical waste each year -- fertilized eggs that would be available to researchers if the bill becomes law. Donors also have the option of offering their embryos to infertile couples and more than 81 babies have been "adopted" from fertility clinics in recent years. More than two dozen of these so-called "snowflake babies" -- a reference to their former status as frozen embryos -- visited Capitol Hill and the White House Tuesday.

David and Kelly Keim of Berne, Ind., brought their 2-year-old twins, Caroline and Spencer, to Washington to plead with lawmakers to vote down the bill.

"This is about the plight of frozen embryos. The same plight our children were once in," said David Keim, bouncing a pigtailed Caroline on his hip. The couple, who had struggled with infertility treatments for seven years, adopted 13 frozen embryos -- including the two that grew into Caroline and Spencer -- from the same donor couple and hope someday to have more children.

Embryo adoption would not be affected by the Castle legislation. But if the bill becomes law, donors who opt to dispose of their surplus embryos would have the option of donating them to science, rather than see them disposed of as medical waste.

Opponents of embryonic stem cell research would prefer researchers focus on adult stem cells -- undifferentiated cells that can be found in certain tissues throughout the body and in newborns' umbilical cords. The House Tuesday overwhelmingly supported a bill from Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., that would encourage adult stem cell research and help establish a national bank for umbilical cord blood, which can be used in the treatment of sickle cell anemia, leukemia and other diseases.

"This fixation with destroying human embryos and downplaying all other research is not accurate and it is damaging," Smith said during his floor statement. "(Cord blood) works, it has incredible promise and is an ethical source of stem cells."

But many of Smith's allies on the cord blood bill also supported embryonic stem cell research.

"This is not an easy vote for many of us," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who co-sponsored the cord blood bill and also supported the Castle-DeGette stem cell research bill, saying he felt he had an obligation to future generations.

Also speaking in defense of expanded stem cell research were members of the House who had a personal stake in the potential medical advances. Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill., has Parkinson's disease. Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I., was shot in the neck and paralyzed when he was 16 years old. Both said they hoped stem cell research could someday offer them a cure.

The embryonic stem cell bill is expected to pass the Senate, but Bush again Tuesday signaled a veto lies ahead.

"(The Castle) bill would take us across a critical ethical line by creating new incentives for the ongoing destruction of emerging human life. Crossing this line would be a great mistake," Bush said during a Rose Garden meeting with the "snowflake babies" and their parents.

Bush banned new embryonic stem cell experiments soon after he took office, although he allowed researchers to continue studying the embryonic stem cell lines already in existence. Researchers complain that these older lines have become contaminated and almost useless over the years and that adult stem cells are difficult to harvest and develop into potential cures.

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