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Stem Cell Research Again Major Issue in US Election
Friday, 03 November 2006
Stem cell research has once again become one of the top issues in US elections.
The 7 November 2006 US mid-term elections will decide who holds all seats in
the House of Representatives, a third of the Senate seats, and 36
governorships. As Democrats and Republicans war for the hearts and minds of
their voters, stem cell science again plays a major role. The issue have
haunted American elections ever since Pres. Bush’s outlines in Aug. 2001 on the
restriction of federal funding of stem cell research. This year mid-term
election is no exception, especially after Bush’s first veto earlier this
summer of a bill (HR 810) that would have expanded federal embryonic stem cell
research funding.
In
Wisconsin, where human embryonic stem cells were first isolated, the reelection
campaign of Democratic Governor Jim Doyle has run television advertisements
attacking Doyle's opponent, Republican Congressman Mark Green, for voting
against a bill that would have increased the number of stem cell lines eligible
for federal funding. In one ad, the mother of a child with type 1 diabetes
says, “When a Washington politician like Mark Green says he's going to
outlaw stem cell research, I say, ‘Tell it to my daughter.’”
And in California, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger responded to
Pres. Bush's July veto of the stem cell bill by issuing a loan of $150 million
from the state budget to hisstate’s cash-strapped stem cell research
initiative. With itslong-term funding tied up by litigation, the California
Institutefor Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) had been unable to award
researchgrants. Now, it is expected to announce the first ones in about6
months. Ironically, Bush’s veto “brought us to life,” CIRM’spresident,
Zach Hall, said.
Missouri is a case in point. The key Senate battle there is between
Democrat Claire McCaskill and Republican incumbent Jim Talent, who are
neck-and-neck in the polls. McCaskill supports expanding federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, while
Talent opposes research that involves the destruction of human embryos and
backed President Bush’s veto of legislation to expand that research.
The embryonic stem cell issue has been thrown into high relief in Missouri because of a proposed amendment to the
state constitution that would ensure that any embryonic stem cell research and
treatment allowed under federal law would be permitted in the state. McCaskill
supports the amendment, while Talent opposes it.
For the past five years, Missouri state legislators have tried to criminalize
many forms of stem cell research and therapy, according to Donn Rubin, chairman
of Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, a
network of patient groups, medical organizations and scientists that is
spearheading the push for the amendment. Rubin said in an interview, that state
legislators have in particular targeted somatic cell nuclear transfer, which they argue should be illegal because it is a cloning
method.
If voters approve the amendment on Nov. 7, Missouri will join other states —
including California, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland and
Massachusetts — that have passed initiatives supporting embryonic stem cell
research.
The Missouri amendment has drawn national attention, in part because of a wave
of celebrity television ads on both sides of the debate. The actor Michael J. Fox, who
suffers from Parkinson's disease, appears in one television spot trembling
violently as a result of his illness.
“In Missouri,
you can elect Claire McCaskill, who shares my hope for cures,” he says. “Unfortunately,
Senator Jim Talent opposes expanding stem cell research. Senator Talent even
wanted to criminalize the science that gives us a chance for hope. They say all
politics is local, but that's not always the case. What you do in Missouri matters to
millions of Americans — Americans like me.” Pop star Sheryl Crow is also
appearing in spots endorsing the amendment.
In response, Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner has appeared in a
commercial claiming that “there are certain issues that outweigh just finding a
cure and doing research, and life is one of those.” Other athletes and actors
have also appeared in ads opposing the amendment.
In Montana, the midterm elections
will pit Democrat Jon Tester, a strong supporter of government funding for
embryonic stem cell research, against Republican incumbent Conrad Burns.
Tester, who leads by a narrow margin in the polls, said in an interview that he
is interested in “reversing the archaic thinking of the Bush Administration
and my opponent, Sen. Burns, on the issue of federal funding for embryonic stem
cell research.”
Burns’ spokesperson, Matt Mackowiak, told in the same interview that “given the ethical and moral
concerns raised by so many, [Burns] does not support federal funding of
embryonic stem cell research” but that he does not oppose private funding.
In Tennessee, there is a fight to
fill the seat of Senate majority leader Bill Frist, a
Republican physician who has been a vocal proponent of federal funding for
embryonic stem cell research. Democrat Harold Ford, Jr., currently a member of
the House, has voted in favor of expanding federal spending on embryonic stem
cell research and has said he would continue to do so in the Senate. Bob Corker, the Republican
candidate who's neck-and-neck with Ford in the polls, said in a debate this
month that he approves of federal funding only for research on adult stem
cells.
Virginia's key Senate candidates are
Democrat James Webb, who voted in favor of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement
Act of 2005 (HR 810) as a
member of the House, and Republican incumbent George Allen, who voted against
it. Allen, who leads with a narrow margin in the polls, maintained in a recent
interview with CNN that there are “at least half a dozen” approaches to
stem cell research that avoid “the
controversy of the ethics or the morals of destroying an embryo.”
Robert Menendez, the Democratic incumbent in New Jersey,
voted in favor HR 810 and
funding proposals for a stem cell research center in the state. Republican
candidate Tom Kean, Jr., who leads by a slight margin in the polls, voted
against funding for the center, but said in a televised debate earlier this
month that he did so only because he thinks voters should approve it first as a
ballot measure. “He voted against the bill because it used bonded money without
voter approval in a time of fiscal crisis,” campaign spokeswoman Jill
Hazelbaker told The Scientist.
Stem cells have also come up as a campaign issue in Ohio,
a hotly contested state that was considered a toss-up until just days ago.
Democrat Sherrod Brown, an original co-sponsor of HR 810 in the
House, has pulled ahead of Republican incumbent Mike DeWine in the polls.
DeWine voted against HR 810 and
has stated that he opposes “any bill that would expand existing policy by
allowing the government to pay for studies on embryos in frozen storage at
fertility clinics, even if the couples who conceive them certify that they
would otherwise discard them.”
In Maryland,
Democratic Rep. Ben Cardin and Republican Lt. Governor Michael Steele,
candidates for the open Senate seat, strongly disagree about public funding for
embryonic stem cell research. Earlier this summer, Steele got in a heap of
trouble for comparing embryonic stem cell research to Nazi medical experiments
in concentration camps.
Also, in the race for the governorships of Maine, Massachusetts and Wisconsin,
democrats are trying to use their party’s support for public funding for all
forms of stem cell research as a weapon against Republicans.
What many commentators are missing is that the stem cell issue is not just a
matter of a tiny interest group pushing its pet agenda. The emerging new
interest is not only capable of raising money to support pro-embryonic stem
cell research candidates, but perhaps of delivering crucial votes on Nov. 7 and
beyond.
Just a few months ago a Republican Congress came very close to overriding the
only veto that Pres. Bush ever made — to block public funding of embryonic stem
cell research. How could it happen that Congress, which was strongly opposed to
such funding back in 2002, and being lobbied hard by the influential pro-life
lobby, shifted with a majority supporting public funding in both the House and
the Senate by 2006?
The answer has a little to do with the power of ethical arguments in favor of
funding embryonic stem cell research to change minds. What Congress really
responded to was an incredibly well-organized and powerful lobby of disease and
disability organizations. These include those fighting to help people with
cancer, diabetes, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease),
Parkinson's disease, infertility, paralysis, blindness, heart disease and a
variety of other disorders and ailments. For the first time ever, these groups
pulled together and made their lobbying presence felt to the point where a
Republican Congress came close to abandoning a president from their own party.
Not only do these groups command money, politicians realize they also control
votes. If you total up the number of people who have these diseases and
disabilities, their families and friends and those who take care of them you are
talking about millions and millions of Americans.
In close races around the country this new lobbying group may be capable of
getting people to vote and make the difference as to who wins. If you keep an
eye on their Web sites, you will see disease advocacy groups in many states
organizing to get their members and friends to the polls.
If the coalition that formed so effectively around advocacy for embryonic stem
cell research hangs together, it may well become a force that American
politicians ignore only at their own peril.
Links:
Missouri
amendment
http://sos.mo.gov/elections/2006petitions/ppStemCell.asp
The Missouri Coalition for
Lifesaving Cures
The
official coalition of patient groups, medical organizations and citizens
supporting Amendment 2: The Stem Cell Research and Cures
Initiative.
http://www.missouricures.com/
Stem-Cell
Politics
New England Journal of Medicine, Volume
355:1633-1637 October 19,
2006 Number 16
Michael
J. Fox video: “Disease
is a non-partisan problem that requires a bipartisan solution”
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L.
Ed.
CellNEWS
06-11-03
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