Bush Won’t Be Pushed Into Stem Cell Choice

President Bush said Thursday that he would decide the thorny issue of whether to allow federal funding of embryonic stem cell research in due course but that the decision would not be a political one.

“I will make an announcement in due course, when I’m ready,” Bush said from a summit in Europe. “And it doesn’t matter who’s on what side of this.”

His comments come a day after the Senate’s only physician, who also is a close ally of Bush, added new momentum to the drive for federally financed medical research with embryonic stem cells.

Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday that, while he opposes abortion, he feels compelled to support research that could save lives. The senator, who has often transformed the president’s views into Senate proposals, also proposed several restrictions on any new funding. Namely, he would limit the number of sets of cultured stem cells to come from a single embryo.

Frist said such a compromise would allow stem cell research to progress “in a manner respectful of both the moral significance of human embryos and the potential of stem cell research to improve health.”

Bush, also an abortion opponent, said Thursday that the issue goes “way beyond politics. It is an issue that speaks to morality and science and the juxtaposition of both.”

Stem cells are master cells that can generate body tissue. Scientists think the cures for many diseases could be unlocked with research using the cells. Abortion opponents say harvesting the cells requires the death of an embryo, which some regard as a human life.

There currently are about a dozen embryonic stem cell lines. But researchers say it will take experiments with scores, perhaps hundreds, before scientists can be confident that basic biological discoveries are universal.

A federal research report released Wednesday said scientists should be free to pursue all avenues of research, including those involving human embryos.

Opponents favor research using adult stem cells, which are taken from mature organs and then manipulated in the lab.

The federal researchers, however, said embryonic stem cells can develop into all types of cells and tissue, a flexibility that may be lacking in adult stem cells.

“I strongly believe that we have measured the question carefully and that it is time to move on,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who heads a panel on federal health spending.