GOP Senators Join Stem Cell Dissension

A bipartisan group of senators vowed Wednesday to push for a quick vote on easing federal funding restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, the second congressional challenge to President Bush on the issue in two days.

The House on Tuesday passed an identical stem cell measure, which Bush said he would veto if it reached his desk.

Supporters of the legislation say greater federal support for such research is needed to speed the development of treatments and cures for serious illnesses. But Bush and other opponents say the federal government should not expand research that requires the destruction of human embryos, from which the stem cells are derived.

The emotionally charged issue has propelled the president into a rare public confrontation with a significant group of fellow Republicans in Congress. He also seems at odds with the views of a majority of Americans, who polls show support embryonic stem cell research even though it requires destroying embryos.

Bush said his position is based on his determination to promote a “culture of life” by protecting human life from the moment of conception.

He added: “There must be a balance between science and ethics. And I’ve made my decision as to how best achieve that balance.”

Bush authorized the first federal funding for embryonic stem cell research in August 2001, but with strict limits.

In order to avoid creating an incentive to destroy more embryos, Bush limited government funding to research involving stem cells that already had been taken from embryos. Supporters of such research say many of the lines initially thought to be available turned out to be unobtainable or of limited use.

The House bill would render more stem cell lines eligible for federally funded research.

Scientists believe that stem cells from embryos have the ability to grow into any type of cell or tissue of the body. Under Bush’s policy and the House measure, the stem cells in federally funded experiments could come only from fertility clinic patients’ embryos that had been slated for destruction.

The legislation’s prospects in the Senate are uncertain. Although supporters say they believe they have the votes to pass it, they may be unable to persuade Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to bring it to the floor.

Also, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) has threatened to filibuster the measure if it comes to a vote.

If the measure passes in the Senate, it probably will not survive a presidential veto. The House vote, for instance, fell well short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.

“That bill that passed the House [Tuesday] is not going to become law,” House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) said Wednesday.

But Senate supporters of expanded stem cell research say they are undeterred by the opposition or the political odds.

Sens. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), both social conservatives, joined Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and three senior Democratic senators to say they intended to push ahead.

Specter, who has Hodgkin’s disease and has lost most of his hair to chemotherapy, said he barely recognizes himself now. For him and other Americans facing serious illnesses, Specter said, “not to have the best medical care is simply atrocious.”

The push for a vote puts Frist, a physician who opposes abortion and has been mentioned as a presidential contender for 2008, in an awkward position.

If he blocks the bill from coming to the floor, senators can still seek to attach it as an amendment to must-pass legislation. If he allows it to come to the floor, he risks enraging socially conservative groups whose support will be vital in the GOP presidential race.

And if he is unable to block a vote and the measure passes, Frist will have put Bush in the politically uncomfortable position of having to cast the first veto of his presidency.

Amy Call, a Frist spokeswoman, said the majority leader was still “consulting with his colleagues on ways to move forward” and wanted time to study the stem cell issue.

Hatch said he saw no conflict between his support for the measure and his staunch antiabortion stance: “I don’t take a back seat to anybody in the right-to-life community.” He does not believe that life begins in a petri dish, but rather only after an embryo is implanted in a woman’s womb, he said, so it is possible “to be both antiabortion and pro-embryonic stem cell research.”

Proponents say that expanded stem cell research funded by the government might lead to treatments or cures for spinal cord injuries and diseases such as childhood diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Opponents say it is wrong to force millions of American taxpayers who oppose the destruction of embryos to pay for such research when there is no hard evidence that it will lead to cures.

They also say federal money would be better spent in other ways -- such as researching stem cells from umbilical cord blood -- that would not require the destruction of embryos.

Calling the House passage of the measure “a mistake,” Bush said Tuesday that such a law would “take us across a critical ethical line by creating new incentives for the ongoing destruction of emerging human life.”

The House passed the bill, 238 to 194, with 50 Republicans voting in favor of the measure. It takes 290 votes in the House to override a presidential veto.

*

Times staff writers Maura Reynolds, Richard Simon and Edwin Chen contributed to this report.