'Bittersweet' vote

Senate passes stem cell bill, but it isn't veto-proof

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 19, 2006 at midnight

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WASHINGTON - Rep. Diana DeGette scored a "bittersweet" victory Tuesday in a five-year quest to expand embryonic stem cell research, with the U.S. Senate passing her bill, 63-37.

But that is four votes short of a veto-proof majority, and President Bush is poised to wipe it away as early as today.

DeGette, D-Colo., hailed the Senate's vote as a potential landmark in the advancement of medical research. The House passed the bill last year, but was 63 votes short of being capable of overriding a Bush veto.

The White House released a policy statement this week reiterating the president's longstanding veto threat.

Although backers were holding out hope of a last-minute change of heart, DeGette's name could become the answer to a historic trivia question: Who wrote the first piece of legislation that Bush targeted with a veto pen?

"I'd rather not become the answer to a trivia question," DeGette said, while doing shuttle diplomacy between the Senate and House of Representatives.

"I'd rather have him sign the bill. It's a bittersweet feeling for me," she said. "To come this far and have the president execute his first veto on this legislation is a big disappointment."

The legislation, which DeGette co-sponsored with Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., is meant to ease restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research that Bush imposed shortly after taking office in 2001.

Stem cells are a basic building block for all other cells, and medical researchers are trying to find ways to tap into their potential to help regenerate diseased or damaged tissues and find potential cures for such diseases as diabetes, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.

Some stem cells can be derived from adult sources or umbilical cord blood, but many researchers believe there's even greater promise in stem cells derived from embryos.

The research is controversial because many opponents, particularly religious conservatives, equate experimentation on embryos to the destruction of human life. Bush's executive order, intended as a compromise, limited federally funded research to only those stem cell lines in existence in 2001.

Embryonic research proponents argue that most of those cell lines have been contaminated or have become unusable, and they hailed the DeGette- Castle bill as a major breakthrough.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., called Tuesday's vote "the most important progress we've made on any health issue in the last 10 years."

Colorado's senators split on the vote, with Democrat Ken Salazar voting for the DeGette bill and Republican Wayne Allard voting against.

DeGette and Castle tried to appease critics by including the first ethical standards for embryonic research and by focusing expanded federally funded research on leftover embryos from fertility clinics that otherwise are slated to be discarded as medical waste.

Still, Bush was standing by the veto threat, and it appeared unlikely that Congress could muster the two-thirds majorities it would take to override.

White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters Tuesday, "The simple answer is he thinks murder's wrong. The president is not going to get on the slippery slope of taking something living and making it dead for the purposes of scientific research."

Countered DeGette, "I guess what the president is saying is he thinks it would be better to throw these embryos away as medical waste."

She has been inspired in her drive for the legislation by her 12-year-old daughter, Francesca, who has Type 1 diabetes.

The president's veto could set back research by years, said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who was treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma in the nearly two years Congress has been waiting to pass the legislation.

During Tuesday's debate, with DeGette taking a guest chair in the back corner of the Senate chamber, Specter referred to a colleague who portrayed the debate as a question of when life begins.

"The question in my mind is when life ends," Specter said.

DeGette had a fast and furious schedule Tuesday, as she scurried back and forth between the House and Senate chambers, huddled with supporters, and did countless national media interviews.

As the final vote drew near, she had an encouraging meeting with Fred Grover, head of surgery and transplantation programs at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

"I think she has been absolutely fabulous," Grover said after the meeting. "She took leadership in the House, reached across the aisle and made it a bipartisan issue."

In addition to the embryonic stem cell bill, the Senate passed two related bills Tuesday. One would ban the growing and aborting of fetuses simply for the purpose of research - a practice dubbed "fetal farming" that backers of embryonic research also oppose. The other would encourage research into stem cells from alternative sources.

DeGette dismissed each of those bills as little more than a "fig leaf" to give Bush cover for vetoing her bill.

Still, Bush also won praise.

In a written statement, Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics at the Colorado Springs- based Focus on the Family, said Bush had shown "uncommon character and courage." "His expected action to veto this bill will hopefully prevent the needless destruction of untold frozen embryos," she said.

sprengelmeyerm@SHNS.com

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