HEALTH WATCH : Bankrupt Bank

Is George Bush’s dogmatism--and cynicism--on the issue of fetal tissue research boundless?

Despite the likelihood of a presidential veto, Congress is poised to approve a compromise bill that would lift a 1988 ban on research using human fetal tissue from abortions.

Surgical transplants growing out of this research have shown promise of markedly benefiting patients with Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and spinal cord injuries. Even such Bush loyalists as Sens. Bob Dole, (R-Kan.), Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) and John C. Danforth (R-Mo.) support funding for this scientific work.

But not George Bush, who has construed federal support for fetal tissue transplants as being tantamount to encouraging abortions.

Tuesday, in an effort to block veto-proof votes in Congress, Bush ordered the establishment of a national bank and registry for tissue from ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. Such tissue, in Bush’s mind, is morally acceptable for research because it is not the product of elective abortions.

This last-ditch proposal is ridiculous: Current law already allows scientists to use such tissue, but the unpredictability of these so-called spontaneous abortions makes collection of this tissue impractical. Moreover, the tissue from such pregnancies is often defective and rarely suitable for research. Finally, the Senate decisively rejected an earlier proposal to establish just such a tissue bank.

The President’s preoccupation with this issue is unseemly and counterproductive. Bush must back down.