In-Depth: Bush Vetoes Stem Cell Bill

July 19, 2006 — President George W. Bush issued the first veto of his presidency by striking down a bill that would have allowed more federal funds for stem cell research.

Currently, federally funded researchers may only use embryonic stem cell lines developed before Aug. 9, 2001. A senate bill passed on Tuesday would have broadened available lines to those researchers.

The bill, HR810, was only four votes short of a two-thirds majority that could have overridden the president’s veto.

While leading researchers promise to forge ahead with their work using private or state funding for studies using newer embryonic stem cell lines, today’s veto, for many, marked a lost opportunity.

"Lack of federal funding is holding back stem cell research in this country," said Walt Low, a professor of neurosurgery and a researcher in the Stem Cell Institute at the University of Minnesota. "Without full federal support, it is difficult to move forward."

Embryonic stem cells form as a tiny cluster of cells in early embryos. Since the cells can give rise to any type of cell in the body, scientists believe they may hold the key to treating numerous diseases and conditions, including cancer, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's.

Some argue there are alternative means of gleaning the flexible cells. In fact, the president signed into law on Wednesday two Republican-backed companion bills emphasizing such alternatives.

One directs the federal government to seek out non-human sources for embryonic stem cells and another makes it criminal to initiate and terminate pregnancies specifically to produce the cells.

Old vs. New

The current administration argues that plenty of embryonic stem cells, created from the old lines, are available for research projects.

In a statement issued Monday, the White House said, "The NIH (National Institutes of Health) has sent more than 700 shipments of cells to researchers and has thousands more available upon request...85 percent of all the human embryonic stem cell science done in the world has been done with the lines now approved for funding by the NIH."

The University of California San Francisco and the University of Wisconsin are the only two U.S. universities that had derived human embryonic stem cell lines by the president’s 2001 cut-off date.

Arnold Kriegstein, director of the UCSF Institute for Regeneration Medicine, told Discovery News that studies indicate the older lines have acquired genetic mutations because the process previously required the use of mouse cells.

Mouse cells were used as a "feeder layer" to nourish the human cells. Since the mouse cells themselves produce molecules, the older stem cell lines may be contaminated, Kriegstein said.

Randy Schekman, professor of molecular and cell biology and director of the University of California at Berkeley's Stem Cell Institute, agrees.

"The federal government mandates the use of outdated technology even though newer technologies are available," Schekman told Discovery News. "This would never happen in the computing world. There is no question that lines developed in more recent years are preferable to the older stem cell lines."

Further Obstacles 

NIH spokesman Don Robusky told Discovery News that 38 million dollars is projected to fund human embryonic stem cell research this year. 

An NIH report listing all medical-related funding, however, reveals that this amount is quite low when compared to projected 2006 funding for such issues as alcoholism ($509 million), behavioral and social science ($3,026 million) and aging ($2,400 million). 

The government’s stem cell research requirements are also causing many institutes to renovate their facilities in order to separate federally funded projects from non-federally funded ones. 

“Five million dollars that could have been directed towards research was spent on our renovation, not to mention the fact that we’ve had to purchase duplicates of much of our equipment,” said Kriegstein. 

One of the most controversial areas of research, not even mentioned in the new bill, is somatic cell nuclear transfer, or therapeutic cloning. 

Therapeutic cloning involves taking DNA from an individual, such as someone suffering from Parkinson’s disease, and transferring that DNA into an egg from which a nucleus has been removed. 

The egg is then electrically stimulated to return the cells to an embryonic state. Scientists observe how these cells behave in hopes of determining how the person’s diseased and healthy cells form and behave. 

Eventually scientists think the research could lead to better treatments. Currently UCSF is the only U.S. university conducting such research. 

“I hope the public will become more aware that we are not talking about experimentation on babies here, but rather research on a cluster of cells in a lab that has no possibility of even becoming a baby,” Kriegstein said. 

California Bound

Although polls indicate over 70 percent of Americans support embryonic stem cell research, today’s veto emphasizes the critical role of state and private funding. 

According to Schekman, New York universities are highly supported, as is Harvard University, which is devoting $100 million to related projects. 

In the United States, however, most eyes are now directed toward California, whose voters approved passage of a ballot measure that offers $3 billion in funding for stem cell studies at California universities and research institutions. A state agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, was created to manage the money. 

At present, the proposition is stalled by legal challenges, including attacks over powers given to the independent grant-making agency. 

“We expect a positive outcome for those cases and, regardless, we are going to move forward as we have been successful in raising private support,” said Schekman. 

Schekman is also hopeful that federal restrictions on stem cell research may be temporary.

“I was somewhat encouraged to see prominent Republicans, even likely 2008 presidential candidates, supporting stem cell research,” he said. “It is very possible that the ban on federal funding will be lifted before 2008. Eventually this temporary hiatus will end and we will not have a presidential veto.”