Thursday, June 7, 2007

Better Not Cave, Dems

Updated: 1:37 p.m. PT June 7, 2007
The Democratic-controlled Congress passed legislation Thursday to loosen restraints on federally funded embryonic stem cell research, but the bill’s supporters lacked the votes needed to override President Bush’s threatened veto.

The 247-176 House vote marked the second time in recent weeks that Democratic leaders chose to confront Bush over an issue on which they command widespread public support, following a veto struggle over a proposed troop withdrawal timetable from Iraq.

This time the controversy is at the uneasy intersection of medical research and politics, involving a type of cell that the National Institutes of Health says might serve as “a sort of repair system for the body.”


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., appealed to Bush moments before the bill passed to sheath his “cruel veto pen,” and sign legislation that she said could help “save lives, find cures and give hope to those suffering.”

But the president responded quickly with a written statement that accused majority Democrats of recycling an old measure that he vetoed a year ago. Under the bill, “American taxpayers would for the first time in our history be compelled to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos. Crossing that line would be a grave mistake,” he said in a statement issued in Germany, site of a summit of world leaders.

The bill drew the support of 210 House Democrats and 37 Republicans. Despite the bipartisanship, the total was 35 votes fewer than needed to override a veto.

The Senate cleared the bill several weeks ago by a margin that was one vote short of the two-thirds needed to overcome Bush’s objections.

No suspense
There was no suspense about the outcome in the House, although personal experience punctuated Thursday’s hour-long debate to an unusual degree.

Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., the bill’s chief Democratic supporter, spoke of her daughter’s struggle with juvenile diabetes. “As you can imagine, I am anxious about the idea of my child having to manage such a serious condition all by herself” once she goes to college, she said. “I share this anxiety with many parents of affected children.”

Moments later Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I., paralyzed since a gun accident severed his spinal cord several years ago, addressed the House from his motorized wheelchair. An opponent of abortion, Langevin said, “My education on this issue has filled me with tremendous hope, not only that stem cell research might one day lead to a cure for spinal cord injuries, but that one day ... families will no longer watch in agony as a loved one with Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s gradually declines.”

Opponents of the measure said they, too, support medical research, but insisted that the use of embryonic stem cells was the wrong approach on moral grounds — and possibly not even the most promising one scientifically.

“You’re talking about spare embryos now, but if it ever did work ... it would require the killing of millions of embryos,” said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.

He said a recent report by the U.S. Catholic Conference listed numerous breakthroughs involving medical research conducted with adult stem cells, umbilical cord blood and amniotic fluid, none of which involve the destruction of a human embryo.

Several opponents of the measure also cited a day-old report from scientists who said they had succeeded in turning ordinary skin cells from mice into an embryonic state.

Clear political subtext
Whatever the scientific implications, the political subtext was clear.

The stem cell legislation was one of six bills that Pelosi placed at the top of her agenda when Congress convened, and she chose to preside when the measure passed. So far, the only other measure among the six to make it to the White House was a minimum wage increase.

According to the National Institutes of Health Web site, scientists were first able to conduct research with embryonic stem cells in 1998.

There were no federal funds for the work until Bush announced on Aug. 9, 2001, that his administration would make it available for lines of cells that already were in existence.

Elected with the strong support of abortion foes and other conservatives, he said at the time his decision was designed to balance concerns about “protecting life and improving life.”

He also limited the funds to cell lines derived from embryos that were surplus at fertility clinics, and that had been donated from adults who had given informed consent

Advocates of the veto-threatened legislation argue that the number of stem cell lines available for research is smaller than needed, and that some of the material has become contaminated over time by mouse embryonic skin cells that typically are placed at the bottom of culture dishes used in the research.

The bill would permit funding for research on embryonic stem cells regardless of the date of their creation, as long as they were donated from in-vitro fertilization clinics, they would “otherwise be discarded” and donors gave their approval.

“No stem cell would ever be taken from an embryo that was not destined to be destroyed in any event,” said Rep. Mike Castle, a Delaware Republican who has long bucked his party leaders to support the measure.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

the dems are kinda unpredicatible right now. they seem to have lost their backbone.

Jacq said...

Ain't it the truth! I'm telling you, 2007 is turning out to be a suck ass year for me. The dems really need to find their backbone and grow some balls.

And poor Paris Hilton. Aw...pity. I hope she uses her experience as a learning tool. Maybe it'll turn her around some. Seems to have been a traumatic thing for her. The fact that no one came to her rescue and justice FINALLY prevailed when someone violates their parole is rather joyous. Fun to watch, too. Broadcasted all over the world. Tsk, Tsk. Guess that wasn't very 'hot' was it, Paris?

CatsDigMe said...

I just watched a rerun of the MTV movie awards. Sara Silverman was ripping on Paris Hilton badddd. The audience was roaring. Then the camera cut to Paris, herself, sitting in the audience. You could tell the bitch was pissed. Boy it warmed my heart cockles.

CatsDigMe said...

Now maybe the spoiled bitch will use some of her billions for stem cell research?

Anonymous said...

and isn't sad that we have become so jaded by our politics and world situation that Paris Hilton is the only thing worth talking about.

I'm not giving you guys shit, it just goes to show that we are getting sick of pointing at the real problems that continue to perpetuate with no end in sight.
our only hope at justice is watching the fall (rise) of a socialite. she is just a symbol of everything that pisses us off.

too bad her weeping in the back of a cop car doesn't really change very much. there are bigger bitches out there that have more power than her. there are several administration officials that I want to see weeping in the back of cop cars. that's what I want to see.

CatsDigMe said...

I read somewhere that MSNBC was in the middle of interviewing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about the war, and broke off to cover the "breaking news" of Paris in the cop car. No wonder we're so fucked up.

Anonymous said...

on the nose, sir

Anonymous said...

Ted--you always liked a hot chick in the back of a car......

CatsDigMe said...

Personally, I'll take a hot chick wherever I can find one. In fact I'd crawl a mile, walk ten miles, drive hundreds of miles, or fly 3000 miles for a really fine, hot, chick. Uh, Paris does not qualify, neither does the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

Anonymous said...

I'm not one for weeping wimmen in the back of cars. that reeks of a bad scene that I don't want to be part of.

besides, my wife is the only "chick" that is worth my time (whenever I am not boning the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs--mmmmm, sweet ass)