Embryonic stem-cell research back in US political crossfire

WASHINGTON - The next battle in the US political war over stem-cell research is looming, after Bill Frist, the top Republican in the Senate, detonated a political time bomb as lawmakers sloped away on vacation. 

Frist called for increased federal funding for research on frozen embryos left over from fertility treatments, setting a collision course with President George W. Bush.

His move thrust the stem-cell issue back into the mix of political firefights, including those over Iraq, a brewing White House scandal and Supreme Court appointments, which will frame Bush’s second term.

Frist triggered an immediate shockwave among Bush’s most conservative supporters, and put the president squarely on the spot, because as senate majority leader, he has the power to move the legislation on the issue to a vote.

Bush has pledged to wield his first veto if the bill expanding federal aid for research, which supporters say could help find cures for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and some cancers, hits his desk.

‘Against creating life for the sole purpose of destroying it’

“The president is someone who believes we shouldn’t be creating life for the sole purpose of destroying it,” said Bush’s spokesman on Friday.

After weeks of agonizing, Bush ruled in August 2001 that federal money could only be used for research on embryos that already existed at that time - ruling out the use of fertilized eggs left over from fertility treatments.

He has since stuck by that policy, despite complaints from scientists, who say they are being left behind the rest of the world, and Bush’s political foes, who hammered stem-cell research on the campaign trail last year.

The White House counters that Bush was the first president ever to allow federal funding for stem cell research - a point critics say is academic because the science was embryonic itself before he took the White House.

Frist’s move found immediate support from groups who had lined up alongside Democratic candidates in last year’s elections.

“We appreciate his thoughtful consideration of this critical issue,” said a statement from the Christopher Reeve foundation, named for the paralysed late “Superman” star who campaigned for stem-cell research.

“We look to senator Frist’s leadership to quickly pass the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act in the United States Senate this fall.”

Reeve’s widow, Dana, emerged from mourning weeks after her husband’s death last year, to campaign for Democratic nominee John Kerry, who backed expanding federal funds for embryonic stem-cell research.

‘Matter of science’

Although Frist insisted his decision was the result of a long moral journey, his decision will be seen as a calculated gamble with his own political future, ahead of an expected run for the White House in 2008.

“It is not just a matter of faith, it is a matter of science,” said Frist in a Senate floor speech, in the moderated tones of a heart-lung surgeon, his profession before he ventured onto the political stage.

The problem for Frist, is that for many social conservatives vital to securing the Republican nomination, issues like stem-cell research, and the teaching of evolution in schools, are all faith and no science.

Social conservatives reacted with fury, and warned the two-term Tennessee senator that his political prospects were in severe peril.

“Senator Frist’s public backing of this horrific science is being felt deeply across middle America, and most importantly at the grassroots,” warned Tamara Scott, state director for conservative group Concerned Women for America in Iowa, which happens to hold a crucial early presidential nominating caucus.

The National Clergy Council, a consistent political backer of Frist, told him his position was “morally incoherent.”

“Senator Frist can no longer count on our support nor the support of the wider Evangelical or Catholic communities,” the clergy said in a statement.

Frist, little known outside the United States, and even within some of its more rural areas, is expected to mount a challenge for the Republican nomination starting in early 2007.

He was the first practising physician elected to the Senate since 1928, and has performed around 150 heart and lung transplants.

A campaigner for AIDS prevention, he makes annual visits to Africa to treat victims of the disease.

AFP

Photo courtesy: nature.com

***************