Bush veto blocks health care advances
Bush veto blocks health care advances
July 27, 2006
By Rep. Bernard Sanders
President George W. Bush recently vetoed legislation to expand the currently restricted federal funding of research on stem cells. It was the first time in his presidency that he vetoed a bill. In my view, he did so primarily to placate a small portion of Americans, his ultra-right-wing base. I think that's unfortunate, and I believe his decision will have a negative impact upon the lives of millions of Americans and people throughout the world.
By vetoing the stem cell legislation, the president rejected the advice of the scientific community, which sees enormous potential in stem cell research. In recent days I have spoken with knowledgeable doctors and health care professionals in Vermont who have told me what scientists all over America know. Stem cell research holds the possibility of remarkable gains, even cures, for Parkinson's disease and diabetes. It may give us the tools to reverse the damage done by stroke and heart disease (the first and third leading causes of death, respectively, in the United States). It holds the promise of stopping and reversing Alzheimer's disease and of alleviating osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and spinal cord injury. That's quite a list.
Yet President Bush said no to all these bold initiatives in health care even said no to Nancy Reagan, who knows all too well what damage Alzheimer's can wreak on a person and his family.
President Bush argues that expanding embryonic stem cell research is "murder." That is hard for me to understand.
Stem cells are gathered in fertility clinics, from the excess eggs that are not implanted in women who want to get pregnant. When they are not used for implantation, they are thrown away and destroyed. Instead of being discarded into a trash basket, these very same cells could be used by scientists to help us cure some of the most serious illnesses which affect our families.
The remarkable thing about stem cells is that they can be grown and differentiated into any cell in the human body. They can become brain cells or kidney cells, skin or intestines or muscles. Research on these cells might open up new therapies to cure what is now incurable. Further, studying them might hold the key to understanding cell proliferation, so that we better understand how cancer works and how to cure it. They could also provide a way to test new drugs, so that new pharmaceutical treatments for AIDS or breast cancer could be brought to the market both safely and quickly.
Here is why the legislation that President Bush vetoed is so desperately needed. Currently federal funding for research on stem cells is limited to stem cell lines that is, the descendents of a small group of stem cells that were in existence on Aug. 9, 2001.
While the president indicated then that there were "more than 60 genetically diverse stem cell lines" in existence in laboratories, his secretary of health and human acknowledged a month later that only 24 or 25 lines had reached the maturity required for research. Two years later, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni told Congress that only 11 stem cells lines were widely available to scientists. And the chilling news is that all of these 11 lines are all potentially contaminated by viruses as a result of being developed with mouse feeder cells, which were used to spur growth.
The House voted a year ago with strong bipartisan support to lift the White House-imposed restrictions on stem cell lines. I strongly supported that measure. The Senate voted recently on the same legislation and passed it by a sizable majority.
But the President said no and vetoed the bill.
My hope is that in the coming months and years, as a result of increased pressure from scientists, physicians and the American people, the president will change his position. Or, if he does not, that the Congress will have enough votes to override his veto and establish unrestricted federal funding for stem cell research. The potential is now available for major breakthroughs in Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, diabetes, spinal cord injury, stroke, heart disease and many other illnesses. We must seize the opportunity.
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