[ this is bad news for the right to life
Nazis ! ] Scientists Eager for Stem Cell
Policy Change
http://www.truthout.org/122608M
Although President-elect Obama's pledge to change federal policy on
stem cell research is not likely to lead to new cures by the end of
his first year - or even first term - the scientific community is
eager to get moving.
Embryonic stem cell research is one area in which the change that
Obama has promised on the campaign trail will provoke an immediate
effect.
Once he has acted to ease the restriction on federal funding,
researchers across the United States will be free to request funding
from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and to collaborate with
colleagues conducting experiments with private or state-government
money and those working abroad.
"Just with the stroke of a pen, the new president could open up
new avenues of research," said Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.), the lead
Democratic sponsor of legislation that would broaden funding for
embryonic stem cell research.
Obama has vowed to lift restrictions put in place by President
Bush and to enact legislation the current president twice vetoed.
"He would really be signaling that we really are moving in a new
direction," DeGette said.
"The research facilities in America ... are by and large prepared
to move forward with the research. I don't think there'd be much
delay," said Rep. Mike Castle (Del.), the lead Republican sponsor of
the bill.
During the campaign, Obama pledged to take swift action.
"As president, I will lift the current administration's ban on
federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created
after
August 9, 2001 through executive order, and I will ensure that all
research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous
oversight," Obama wrote to the website ScienceDebate2008.com.
Lawmakers supporting embryonic stem cell research plan to
reintroduce legislation putting a new policy into law.
Congress passed similar legislation in 2006 and 2007 but it died
twice under Bush's veto pen. Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Arlen
Specter (R-Pa.) are the lead sponsors of the Senate version of the
bill.
On Monday, DeGette and Castle led a bipartisan group of 11 House
members who delivered a letter to Obama requesting an executive order
"early next year."
"Scientists, not politicians, should decide which techniques have
the best potential for progress in developing therapies," the
legislators wrote Friday.
Researchers believe embryonic stem cells can be made to replicate
practically any human cell or tissue, thus leading to treatments for
countless ailments.
While not disputing the potential of embryonic stem cells, Bush
objects to the fact that embryos are destroyed in the process of
extracting the cells. To many who believe embryos are human life,
this
practice is tantamount to murder.
Moreover, those with moral and ethical objections also note that
scientists have made progress on reprogramming adult stem cells into
the "pluripotent" cells coveted by researchers.
Advocates for the research counter that embryonic stem cells are
derived, with the donors' permission, from unused frozen embryos in
storage at fertility clinics. Most scientists view the emerging
research on reprogramming adult cells as promising but still believe
the embryonic cells have more potential.
Researchers are eager for Obama to act.
"Lifting the restrictions will provide real encouragement to the
people in the field and will eliminate a real drag on the field,"
said
B.D. Colen, the senior communications officer for university science
at Harvard, home to the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
"It could change things pretty much right away," said Terry
Devitt, the director of research communications for the University of
Wisconsin, which runs the U.W. Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine
Center.
None of these advocates predicted that Congress would necessarily
earmark new money for embryonic stem cell research, however.
"I think that question is premature," DeGette said.
The NIH, meanwhile, will have to weigh new spending in this area
against its priorities across the life sciences.
Whether Congress and the Obama administration devote additional
resources to the area, a laxer policy will have immediate benefits to
stem cell researchers.
Scientists already receiving funding for work allowable under the
Bush policy could add new stem cell lines to their projects. In
addition, institutions that set up separate lab facilities to
research
non-federally approved cells can consolidate their efforts. They also
will be able to work with researchers who have moved ahead with
alternate funding since 2001.
Though optimistic about the effects of a new federal policy,
research institutes caution that the fruits of this research will
take
time and that cures are not around the corner.
"There's still a lot of basic science to be done.... The [Bush]
policy has set research back five to six to seven years in this
country," Devitt said.
It could be six months to a year after Obama announces his policy
before the federal government even cuts any checks.
"I would not expect that people have applications ready to go
that
they're planning to FedEx to Bethesda Jan. 21," said Sean Tipton, the
director of public affairs at the American Society for Reproductive
Medicine. "I don't think anybody expects money out the door real
quickly."
The NIH is headquartered in Bethesda, Md.
After Obama issues his order, the NIH and other agencies will
have
to draft and implement the policy. Then, researchers will have to
submit requests for grants and wait for an answer, which can take
months.
"It's a long, drawn-out process," Devitt said. "We'll have to
compete with Harvard and Stanford and the University of California
[at] San Francisco," he said of three of the leading centers of stem
cell research.
Merely subjecting grant applications for embryonic stem cell
research to the standard competition for NIH dollars has always been
the scientific community's goal, Tipton said. "I think that most of
the organizations who were involved in the stem cell fight are pretty
committed to the scientific review process in place," he stated.
"All we've been asking for is: 'Treat embryonic stem cell
research
like everything else,'" Tipton said.
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