Bush Sells Cell Compromise

Some Unhappy With Plan , But It Is Likely To Go Forward

(CBS)  President Bush's careful political compromise on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research seems likely to hold for now, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Fuss.

However, the president's middle-ground decision allowing federal research money only for stem cells already drawn from human embryos is drawing mixed reviews.

There are those in Congress who will push for broader research, using embryos that would otherwise be thrown away in fertility clinics. Others want a complete ban.

"We should take a lot of time to think through the steps that we're proceeding down before we rapidly move down this road. … This is a new world for us," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., a leader of abortion opponents who are concerned because embryos are destroyed for stem cell research.

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Dr. John Gearhart, a researcher at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, said he was disappointed Mr. Bush limited funding only to 60 lines of existing stem cells. He said it could slow research unless new stem cell lines are drawn from additional embryos.

"This limitation the president has put on this is going to delay, I believe substantially, the progress we need to make to bring these types of therapies to the bedside," Gearhart told NBC's Today show.

In the first prime-time speech of his presidency, Mr. Bush said the issue was "one of the most profound of our time," and that he had come down in favor of funding because of the potential for new cures.

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"I have concluded that we should allow federal funds to be used for research on these existing stem cell lines, where the life-and-death decision has already been made," Mr. Bush said in a nationally televised address Thursday night. "Leading scientists tell me research on these 60 lines has great promise that can lead break through therapies and cures."

Mr. Bush added "I will also name a president's council to monitor stem cell research, to recommend appropriate guidelines and regulations and tconsider all of the medical and ethical ramifications of biomedical innovation."

Earlier, the Bush administration told CBS News he will maintain the current ban on using federal funds to actually extract stem cells from an embryo.

The research would be limited to stem cells that had been removed from embryos that were surplus or abandoned by couples at fertility clinics. Such embryos are usually destroyed. Federal rules would require that the donors give consent and not benefit from the donation.

Mr. Bush has spent the last several weeks been weighing what scientists call the "amazing promise" of stem cells against the moral implications of research that destroys human embryos.

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Stem cells, which come in bundles no bigger than a pencil point, contain blueprints to become any kind of cell in the body — from the spinal cord to a beating heart.

Scientists say the cells are more adaptable than adult cells and can be used to treat diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Opponents say that, since the cells are taken from human embryos discarded by fertility clinics, the research destroys life and is immoral. And they believe adult cells might have just as much research potential.

The president has heard from powerful voices on the issue, including Pope John Paul II, who admonished him last month not to give in to the "evils" of the research.

But some leading conservatives, like Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., support federal funding of the research.

Read The Report

Click here to read the National Institutes of Health's report on stem cell research.

NOTE: 20MB .pdf file

The compromise Mr. Bush reached is modeled on a plan developed by Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a doctor and close adviser to the president. A staunch opponent of abortion, Frist, believes stem cell research is a "right to life" issue for people suffering from terminal illness.

Stem cell researchers said they were surprised at Mr. Bush saying there were more than 60 existing embryonic stem cell lines. Most scientists aid they knew of only a dozen or fewer lines that would meet strict National Institutes of Health guidelines.

Scientists also chaffed at the restriction, saying it will slow and perhaps even cripple promising medical research. But others were relieved that Mr. Bush decided to let at least some embryonic stem cell research receive federal funds.

Some religious leaders hailed the Solomon-like decision as an ideal solution for a national moral dilemma. But the United States Catholic Conference denounced Bush's action.

"The trade-off he has announced is morally unacceptable," said a statement from Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.