Bush Vows Veto on Stem Cell Legislation

By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republican leaders are throwing their weight behind a bill to encourage stem cell research that uses blood from umbilical cords. The measure offers an alternative to spending government money for research that would destroy human embryos.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., had agreed earlier to allow a vote as soon as next week on a bill by Reps. Mike Castle, R-Del., and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., to lift President Bush's 2001 ban on the use of federal dollars for research using any new embryonic stem cells lines.

But after Castle and other moderate Republicans angered conservatives by sponsoring polls in their districts on the issue, Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said they would pair the bill with a separate measure to encourage umbilical cord stem cell research.

DeGette on Thursday said the GOP leaders' plan was "a weak attempt to divert support from our bill."




"The bills are completely compatible," she said. She said she intends to vote for both measures and will encourage other members to do the same.

Supporters of embryo stem cell research, including Nancy Reagan, say it could lead to cures for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other degenerative brain and nerve diseases. Opponents say taxpayers should not be forced to pay for such research when large numbers of them believe that the resulting destruction of the embryo is immoral.

Cord blood cells are similar to embryonic cells but can grow into fewer types of tissues. Extracting stem cells from cord blood does not require the destruction of an embryo.

"There are some members who might be more inclined to vote no on Castle if they can vote yes on the cord blood bill," Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., said Thursday.

The effort to provide undecided members an option more agreeable to anti-abortion groups jeopardizes the momentum the Castle-DeGette measure acquired after President Reagan's death last June and the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case this year. Supporters claim to have about 200 co-sponsors in the 435-member House and commitments from enough other members to garner the 218 votes needed to pass it despite a White House-promised veto.

A rare split appeared in the House GOP caucus when Weldon and others said some sponsors of the Castle-DeGette bill helped finance a poll by the Winston Group in the districts of fellow Republicans showing that opposing the bill might prove unpopular back home.

The survey of 1,300 registered voters - about 100 in each if 13 districts - asked respondents for their views on embryonic stem cell research, according to the firm's spokeswoman, Amy Hopcian. Of those polled, 66 percent favored stem cell research, 27 percent opposed it and the rest were undecided.

The bill's opponents and GOP leaders criticized the polling during two meetings on Wednesday, according to lawmakers and aides. The resentment even spilled onto the House floor, where Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., who opposes the bill, and Rep. Mark S. Kirk, R-Ill., who supports it, got into an argument.

But Dr. Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's ethics and religious liberty commission, said his group would not be

"I'm very concerned about cloning. I worry about a world in which cloning becomes acceptable."
- PRESIDENT BUSH

Specter: Senate stem cell override likely

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Arlen Specter said Sunday he believes the Senate has enough votes to override a threatened presidential veto of legislation easing restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Fellow Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, however, vowed to keep the bill from reaching the Senate floor. Both appeared on ABC's "This Week."

"I've been taught a lot of lessons from the Democrats lately, so I've got some ideas on how one can get this done," Brownback said. "And I think it's important that we move forward."

The bill would allow researchers to use some 400,000 embryos that were created for in vitro fertilization and would likely otherwise be discarded.

President Bush opposes that and held a news conference last week to promote adopting the embryos, which he called "snowflake babies."

The House passed the bill last week with 50 Republicans -- short of a veto-proof vote. The Senate is slated to take up the measure this week.

Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said 58 senators signed a letter to Bush recently asking him to drop his opposition.

"And there are 20 more in the wings who didn't want to put their names on the letter, who I think would vote to override a veto," said the Pennsylvania Republican.

Specter also predicted that if a march on Washington in favor of the bill were to be held, it would "turn a lot of people in the Congress who will look to see what their constituents are demanding."

The two Republicans differed sharply on their views of the status of frozen embryos.

Brownback, also a member of the Judiciary Committee, questioned "what it does to the culture of life" when government approves performing research on the embryos, which he considers "young human life."

Specter shot back, asking what it does "to the culture of life when you let people die because there are medical research tools which could keep them alive?"

"I hate to personalize this, but when I look back on 1970, and President Nixon declared war on cancer, if that war had been adequately funded like the rest of our wars, I might not have Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer today," Specter said.

Specter said he and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, set up the program for adopting the embryos last year and it has resulted in 100 adoptions.

"If we could create 400,000 snowflakes, if we could have all of these embryos adopted, I would be the first one not to use them to save somebody else's life, if it could create a newborn child," Specter said.

Brownback suggested limiting the number of in vitro fertilizations allowed and pushed the use of adult stem cells or umbilical cord blood cells -- which many scientists say are useful but not as useful as the more flexible embryonic stem cells.

He also argued repeatedly during the ABC program that embryos are "the youngest of human life" and at one point asked Specter and host George Stephanopoulos when their lives began.

Specter replied that he was "a lot more concerned, at this point, about when my life is going to end," to which Brownback responded that he prays for the Pennsylvanian and asked again when life starts.

"It certainly doesn't start in a laboratory dish," Specter replied. "This potential for life on these embryonic stem cells cannot begin to occur unless it's implanted back in a woman. We know for sure, life does not start in a laboratory dish."

Brownback was not persuaded, however, saying that the embryos are "sacred" and "should be treated as such."

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) joined the Republican Main Street Partnership today to unveil new national polling results showing strong Republican voter support for expanded embryonic stem cell research by a margin of 55 to 38 percent. Sen. Hatch then endorsed H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act sponsored by Main Street President Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.). "I come to this issue as a strong and outspoken Right-to-Life Senator. While I admire and respect those who do not share my views on this, I do believe, very strongly, that it is possible to be both anti-abortion and pro-embryonic stem cell research".