Editorial ; Stem Cell Gains, Games

Jun 22, 08:26 PM

Current Headlines: The science of stem cell research proceeds apace - even as the politics of stem cell research remains mired in charges and counter- charges.

Democrats want the issue as much as - or more than - the federal dollars that might be devoted to such research. And President Bush, who refuses to acknowledge the absurdity of the line in the sand he has drawn, vetoed a bill that Democrats sent him knowing full well he would veto.

Is it any wonder American voters are fed up with this brand of political gamesmanship?

The good news is that privately-funded research using embryonic stem cell lines created the arbitrary date of Aug. 9, 2001, set by Bush is going on all around us. Much of it is going on abroad as well, unhampered by the rules that come with federal dollars.

So when Democratic presidential contender, Sen. Barack Obama, said Bush was "deferring the hopes of millions of Americans who do not have the time to keep waiting for the cure that may save or extend lives," well that's a less than honest assessment of the current situation.

Just as Bush engages in similar rhetorical overkill when he refers to only his narrowly defined parameters as "ethical stem cell research" as if that involving any use of human embryos which would be otherwise dicarded is "unethical." Bush may not approve of such uses, but those who donate such embryos to science (a recent study found some 62 percent of couples who currently have frozen embryos in storage would be willing to donate them to research) and those who do the painstaking work of creating new stem-cell lines deserve better.

Even as the president was announcing his veto, the head of research for Advanced Cell Technology was announcing to scientific colleagues meeting in Australia that the firm's Worcester lab had successfully produced a human embryonic stem cell line without destroying the embryo. But that technique wasn't even known or mentioned by Bush. Would it meet his definition of "ethical?"

The shame is that in many labs - including those right here at Harvard and at Children's Hospital - there is expense and waste in maintaining two parallel systems, one for federally-funded research and one for projects prohibited under the current federal guidelines. And unless the president's veto can be overridden, that's the system we're all stuck with.

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