Scientists Protested 'Misrepresentation' as Senate Vote Looms

Constance Holden, Science 19 January 2007:
Vol. 315. no. 5810, pp. 315 - 316

According to this article, several leading scientists charged that the White House had misrepresented their research in an attempt to influence the ongoing stem cell debate in Congress. "On 11 January, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to expand the number of human embryonic stem (ES) cell lines available to federally funded researchers. The bill, designated H.R. 3 and considered a top priority in the new Democrat-controlled Congress, passed 253 to 174--a significant jump in support from May 2005 when the same bill passed by 238 to 194. But it still falls more than 30 votes short of the two-thirds needed to override a presidential veto." The Bill went to the Senate.

However, "the White House Domestic Policy Council issued a new report on 10 January to promote methods of getting stem cells that don't harm embryos. The report, Advancing Stem Cell Science Without Destroying Human Life, suggests that a variety of "non-embryo-destructive" approaches may prove capable of creating cell lines with all the potential of ES cell lines."

Comment: Human cell lines are either dead or alive, and no one minds much if unneeded human tissue is discarded ("left to die"). What the White House means is that its position is that human embryos at any stage of development are "human beings", that all human beings have the right to life, and that creating stem cells from early stage human embryos is equivalent to killing a human being if the embryo is destroyed in the process. Embryonic stem cells are taken from early stage embryos that would be discarded anyway; they will not survive whether or not they are used to generate stem cells. The attribution of special rights to the fertilized ovum is a religious position, one that is shared by few people. The White House is apparently using flackery to fight science. It is seeking to impose its religiously based policies on a public desperate for the research which offers hope for so many diseases. JAD