Senate Sitting on Stem-Cell Act

Op-Ed

By U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) and U.S. Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE)

During the past year, more than 1.5 million people were diagnosed with diabetes, 55,000 were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and roughly 8,700 were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Embryonic stem-cell research may hold the key to one day unlocking a cure for these and many other horrible diseases, but sadly that research has been stymied.

This week in the House of Representatives, we noted the one-year anniversary of the passage of House Resolution 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act - a bill to create an ethical construct for embryonic stem-cell research. Since that day last year, more people have succumbed to disease, families have lost their loved ones, and researchers have been forced to sit idle because the Senate has failed to act.

According to scientists, including 80 Nobel laureates, embryonic stem-cell research has the potential to unlock the doors to treatments and cures to numerous diseases, including cancer, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and more. In August 2001, President Bush announced a federal policy to prohibit federal funding for research using embryonic stem- cell lines derived after the issuance of the policy, allowing the research to move forward on only a select number of lines, now thought to be around 22.

At the time, we were concerned because it appeared that science was being arbitrarily limited, but we were pleased that the research was allowed to progress at all. Shortly thereafter, our fears became reality when we learned that the number of stem- cell lines available to be studied using federal funds were of inferior quality, difficult to replicate and limited in their use.

At the same time, new, improved and genetically diverse stem-cell lines were being created in the private sector, at places like Harvard University.

To correct this shortsighted approach to medical research, we joined together to write a bill to expand the federal embryonic stem-cell policy and create an ethical framework that must be followed in conducting this research under the guidance of the National Institutes of Health. Our bill, HR 810, allows federal funds to be used in research on stem-cell lines derived ethically, using excess embryos created through the in vitro fertilization process that would otherwise be discarded. All of this must be done with the informed consent of the donors. Our legislation passed the House on May 24, 2005, with a large bipartisan vote of 234 to 194. Fifty Republicans, including five committee chairs, voted for the legislation.

Unfortunately, one year after the historic House vote, there has been no action in the U.S. Senate and patients have continued to suffer.

There is no question in our minds that the National Institutes of Health and its investigators are not only the best-equipped researchers throughout the world to explore the potential of these master cells and their ability to cure and treat disease, but also the only ones capable of developing an ethical guideline for doing so that will be universally accepted and adopted. An arbitrary and inflexible federal policy is currently dampening hope for so many.

The House has done its part. The time for the Senate to act on stem cells is now.

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