Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

COLUMN: Bush's first veto steals hope from the suffering
By Andrew Miller
Iowa State Daily (Iowa State U.)
07/25/2006

(U-WIRE) AMES, Iowa — Boy, do I hate it when a good bipartisan effort fails to pan out. Just when I start regaining some faith in Congress and its ability to help the American people, in comes the president wielding executive power like a machete. Now all I can do is stare in horror as the stem-cell bill dies in the dust. Not a pretty sight.

Somehow deluded into thinking he was defending life, President George W. Bush proved last week just how out-of-touch with the American populace he really is these days. After all, in an ABC News/Washington Post poll taken in April 2005, 63 percent of those surveyed supported embryonic stem-cell research, with just 28 percent in opposition - the rest being "unsure". Even in a Republican Congress, both chambers managed to scrape together a plain majority, sending the bill to Bush, who was for some reason bent upon sparing the "lives" of some five-day-old blastocysts at the expense of millions of ailing Americans.

OK, at least he's protecting life, right? Well, not so much.

Perhaps his decision would make more sense if there were a better alternative to using the tiny embryos for research. The embryos in question, also called blastocysts, are the product of a sperm and egg meeting in a petri dish for use in a fertilization clinic; after a few days of growth they are a tiny ball of stem cells capable of developing into any type of cell in the body. Because thousands of excess blastocysts are developed and never implanted in a uterus to become a pregnancy, each clinic is forced to do something with the leftover "little boys and girls," as Bush referred to them. And as his veto confirmed, the only acceptable choice- in his opinion- is to toss them into the medical waste bin like so much moldy agar.

On top of that, in another perplexing twist Bush has approved the use of embryonic stem-cell lines as long as they were developed before Aug. 9, 2001. If they were developed on Aug. 10, 2001, any research on them is morally deplorable. As Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, would readily point out, that just makes no sense at all.

In a sense, deciding to research embryonic stem cells is similar to another situation: Deciding to distribute the organs of a brain-dead person. When there is no hope of recovery, there is often a choice to be made by survivors: Whether to donate the organs to sufferers in need or to leave them in their loved one to be buried without saving the lives of others. Rescue victims of disease or waste a precious resource — the better option is obvious.

Of course, one major difference between these situations is the number of people affected. Although the organ waiting lists are generally many thousands of names long, it is estimated that nearly 100 million Americans stand to benefit from embryonic stem-cell research.

As Dr. Hans Keirstead of the University of California told CBS News, "I have never seen in my career a biological tool as powerful as the stem cells. It addresses every single human disease."

He's not exaggerating: Many scientists believe stem cells may hold the key to killers such as cancer and heart disease, as well as other disorders affecting millions of Americans- such as Alzheimer's, diabetes, and countless more.

Dr. Keirstead is in a uniquely knowledgeable situation. In recent research, he found that by injecting large numbers of stem cells into rats paralyzed with spinal cord injuries it was possible for the animals to regain the ability to walk. Although a great deal of research stands between current results and success in humans, it is a cause for hope.

Even after the veto ended the current incarnation of a bill to approve research, there are reasons to hold out this hope. Opponents of the research are starting to find themselves on the defensive as the tide changes. With elections approaching, many are seeing their political stock fall drastically and are polling below pro-research challengers. Even staunch anti-abortion Republicans are realizing the potential lying in embryonic stem cells and joining Democrats to fight for life- the lives of suffering Americans. Although a veto-besting two-thirds majority was out of reach this session, it may not be the next.

In the meantime, visionaries like Dr. Keirstead will continue their work using aging lines and absolutely no federal funding — and millions of ailing Americans and their families will simply have to be content to wait. Bush is too busy authorizing the disposal of "little boys and girls" to be troubled by their problems right now.

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