Enlarge imageBy Joanne Kenen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a rare break with President George W. Bush and anti-abortion conservatives, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Friday endorsed legislation that would expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research.
Frist, a Tennessee Republican and surgeon who may seek his party’s presidential nomination in 2008, endorsed a bill already passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would overturn the limits on the research Bush imposed in 2001.
His backing, which could alienate the most staunchly anti-abortion conservatives but attract support from moderates in a potential White House bid, significantly improves chances of the legislation passing.
Bush has vowed to veto the legislation because embryos are destroyed when the stem cells are extracted.
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush had not wavered in his moral opposition to the research but when Frist informed him of his decision by telephone on Thursday night, the president told him, "You’ve got to vote your conscience."
Patients suffering from diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries and other debilitating and life-threatening disorders have been clamoring for more federal dollars for stem cell research. Opinion polls show growing support for its expansion, even among many conservatives like Frist who generally oppose abortion.
"I am pro life, I believe human life begins at conception," Frist said in a Senate speech. "I also believe that embryonic stem cell research should be encouraged and supported."
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and other House conservatives called on Bush to stick to his pledge to veto the bill. DeLay, a Texas Republican, likened "destructive embryonic stem cell research" to abortion and euthanasia.
The bill, approved in the House and likely to come up in the Senate after the August recess, would allow federally funded research on stem cells derived from leftover embryos in fertility clinics. There are currently about 400,000 such frozen embryos, many of which will otherwise be destroyed.
Frist said he wanted to see some relatively minor changes in the bill, but the legislation’s authors said his concerns would not complicate or delay passage.
Word of Frist’s decision sent shares of companies involved in the field sharply higher.
DIVERSE SUPPORT FOR RESEARCH
Backers of the expanded research were jubilant that Frist had thrown his political and scientific weight behind them.
"It’s an earthquake," said Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, a cancer patient who sometimes carries an hourglass with him to stress the need to hasten the research.
"My heart really jumped," said an elated California Democrat Dianne Feinstein.
Frist has been a staunch ally of Bush’s and has generally hewed to a conservative, anti-abortion line as Senate leader. He championed broader stem cell research in July 2001 -- but then endorsed the strict limits Bush imposed a month later.
Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, warned that Frist cannot "turn around and expect widespread endorsement from the pro-life community if he should decide to run for president in 2008."
But the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership praised Frist. A group called StemPAC stopped airing an anti-Frist television ad in the key presidential primary state of New Hampshire.
Frist’s image as a doctor-politician was marred during the Senate fight last March over the Terri Schiavo case, when he appeared to diagnose the brain-damaged Florida woman on the Senate floor based on a video clip on the Internet.
On stem cells, Frist said he had concluded that Bush’s limits were no longer suitable given the promise of the research. The research, he said, holds out too much hope.
At the time Bush set the policy, it was believed that 78 stem cell lines would be available to scientists. In fact there are only 22, and they are poor quality and contaminated with mouse cells.
Expanded cell research is supported by an ideologically, religiously and geographically diverse group, including liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats, Catholics, Protestants, Mormons and Jews. Lead sponsors in the Senate include strongly anti-abortion Republicans Orrin Hatch of Utah and Gordon Smith of Oregon.
Among the bills most prominent supporters is former first lady Nancy Reagan, whose husband, former President Ronald Reagan, died of Alzheimer’s in June 2004. She issued a statement saying, "Thank you Dr. Frist for standing up for America’s patients."
