NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE ADVISORY
ON "ALTERNATIVE PLURIPOTENT STEM CELL
THERAPIES ENHANCEMENT ACT" (S. 2754)

Issued on Tuesday, July 18, 2006, 5:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Earlier today, a strange and shoddy e-mail was circulated by the office of Rep. Michael Castle (R-De.), who is a leading advocate of using federal funds for research that requires the killing of human embryos and the lead sponsor of H.R. 810, a bill that would require funding of such embryo-destructive research.

The e-mail urged House members to oppose S. 2754, the Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act.

S. 2754 passed the Senate on a roll call of 100 to 0 at about 4:45 PM today. The House is expected to consider the bill very soon on the suspension calendar.

S. 2754 is co-authored by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who opposes research that kills human embryos, and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who is the lead sponsor of S. 471, the Senate companion to Mr. Castle's own H.R. 810.

S. 2754 merely requires the National Institutes of Health to support basic and applied research to try to find methods of creating pluripotent stem cells (which are cells that can be turned into many sorts of body tissue) without creating or harming human embryos.

The Castle e-mail makes a number of wildly erroneous characterizations of the Santorum-Specter bill. It does not appear that much time was spent fabricating this list of allegations, some of which are contradictory to others, and they are too slipshod to justify an extended rebuttal.

For example, the e-mail charges that S. 2754 "mandates the National Institutes of Health to support highly speculative research, some of which has been deemed unethical by the President's own Bioethics Council and this mandated research may violate current law because embryos will be destroyed with federal dollars." In fact, as a single reading of the four-page bill demonstrates, it does not mandate that NIH fund ANY particular research approach to the challenge of developing pluripotent stem cells without killing human embryos, although it does mandate that the Secretary of HHS "prioritize research with the greatest potential for near-term clinical benefit."

The bill does NOT mandate "research [that] may violate current law because embryos will be destroyed with federal dollars." Rather, the bill contains explicit language requiring that the authorized research must be conducted within the confines of the law that has been enacted annually since 1995 on the HHS appropriations bill (the "Dickey Amendment"), which prohibits federal funding of research in which human embryos are harmed.

It is true, as the Castle e-mail asserts, that S. 2754 "never went through committee process and was not able to be amended." If a Member deems that sufficient justification to vote against S. 2754, however, he should also vote against Mr. Castle's H.R. 810, which was never acted on by committees in either house, and which was considered by both the House and the Senate under agreements that did not permit consideration of any amendments.

Although NRLC strongly opposes Mr. Castle's H.R. 810, there is nothing inconsistent about voting for both H.R. 810 and S. 2754. Voting for both bills would place a Member on record as favoring federal funding of stem-cell research that requires killing human embryos, but also exploring alternative methods that do not require killing human embryos. However, if a Member votes for H.R. 810 but against S. 2754, the logical interpretation would be that the Member has no interest at all in advancing stem cell research UNLESS it is research that also requires killing human embryos. The Castle e-mail asserts, "[You] could NEVER be charged for not supporting stem cell research if you vote against this bill." We wouldn't bet on it.

Douglas Johnson
Legislative Director
National Right to Life Committee
202-626-8820

"DICKEY AMENDMENT" (part of HHS appropriations bill since 1995)

SEC. 509. (a) None of the funds made available in this Act may be used for -- (1) the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes; or (2) research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that allowed for research on fetuses in utero under 45 CFR 46.204(b) and section 498(b) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 289g(b)).

(b) For purposes of this section, the term 'human embryo or embryos' includes any organism, not protected as a human subject under 45 CFR 46 as of the date of the enactment of this Act, that is derived by fertilization, parthenogenesis, cloning, or any other means from one or more human gametes or human diploid cells.

To return to the main NRLC Human Embryos webpage, click here.