One of the starker conflicts between cultural values and scientific research plays out this week in Washington. It is impossible to track all the press attention as The Senate debates and seems likely to pass a bill to relax the current ukase against use of US tax dollars for human embryonic stem cell research (except on a handful of rapidly aging cell lines). Below are links to some of the more focussed, widely-published curtain raisers running today or published over the weekend. The White House set the policy early in President Bush’s first term. It arises from worry that such research will commodify human embryos and encourage abortion to obtain them. Medical researchers and many lay people see no shortage of embryos that would not survive in any case. Some or all the legislation should reach Bush’s desk by midweek. This will put to the test his vow to veto any new use of federal dollars for research that destroys human embryos. Most stories devote most of their length to a description of the bill (plus two others that would have little effect on policy) and to the wide and bipartisan support such research has across the nation, with the public as well as lawmakers:
Stories:
Christian Science Monitor Gail Russell Chaddock, Washington Post Rick Weiss; Houston Chronicle Bennett Roth; Wall Street Journal Sarah Lueck; AP Laurie Kellman; Chicago Tribune Jill Zuckman; NYTimes Sheryl Gay Stolberg; Washington Post (op-ed) David S. Broder; Wisconsin Journal Sentinel Katherine M. Skiba; San Jose Mercury News/McClatchy Newspapers Matt Stearns, Margaret Talev;
See Also: Reuters Maggie Fox with a broader, and explicitly relevant story, putting human embryonic stem cells into context of stem cell research in general.
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