The Senate on Wednesday joined the House in approving legislation to expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, an area of science that opponents compare to abortion because it destroys live human embryos.
Democrats used the issue effectively in last year’s elections, and both sides say it produced at least one upset, Sen. Claire McCaskill’s defeat of incumbent Republican Jim Talent in Missouri.
But Democrats still remain shy of the two-thirds majorities needed in both chambers to override a certain veto from President Bush, who killed the same legislation last year and promises to do so again this year. The margin is insurmountable in the House, where more than 30 members would have to switch their votes to overcome a veto.
The debate “is about hope,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. “It is about health.”
Like virtually all Democrats and many Republicans, Harkin says that federal funding for stem cell research could speed the search for cures for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and paralysis.
Such research already gets private funding, but not in the amounts provided by the federal government. Opponents argue that supporters of stem cell research exaggerate the importance of government funding.
In any event, said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the use of taxpayer dollars to harvest live embryos “cannot be morally justified.”
“I want to believe that the pain and suffering will end as much as anyone wants it to end,” Grassley said. “But I cannot in good conscience support a bill that forces American taxpayers to fund research that requires the destruction of innocent human life.”
On the Senate floor Wednesday, Harkin refuted that argument, saying, “Not one dime in the bill can ever be used for the destruction of any embryo.”
But both sides agree that the process of extracting stem cells from live embryos necessarily destroys them. Harkin spokesman Tom Reynolds conceded the point but said, “What’s more ethical? To use the embryo to search for cures or to discard it as hospital waste?”
Under Harkin’s legislation, federal funding could be used for harvesting stem cells from embryos that would otherwise be discarded from fertility clinics.
A competing bill — one that would likely pass both chambers and be signed into law by Bush — would allow federal funding on new stem cell research, but using only embryos that have died naturally.
