Editorial: Debate deja vu

Sunday, April 15, 2007 | 7:24 a.m.

The Senate passed two pieces of embryonic stem cell legislation last week, including one that would clear the way for federally funded stem cell research, which President Bush vetoed last year and has promised to veto again.

In a separate action the Senate also approved an alternative measure, backed by conservative Republicans, that would allow federally funded research only on "naturally dead embryos" - a measure that Bush has said he would support.

The bill that the president opposes, passed 63-34 but still just shy of the two-thirds needed to override a veto, would overturn Bush's Aug. 9, 2001, declaration that federal money could be used to study only stem cells taken from embryos that had been destroyed before that date. The House passed a similar measure in January.

Proponents of using new stem cells say the supply in existence before Bush's 2001 cutoff is smaller than needed and that some of it has become contaminated over time.

Nevada's congressional delegation, with the exception of Republican Sen. John Ensign, voted in favor of the Senate and House versions this year. Ensign supported the alternative measure.

Embryonic stem cells, which are created in the first few days after conception, can be transformed, or "grown," into an array of specialized cells that researchers believe offers the most promise in developing treatments for cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and other conditions, such as Type I, or juvenile, diabetes.

Although these cell clusters provide a foundation for human life, they are not human beings. Those used for research come from embryos that are going to be discarded anyway. The Senate bill that Bush opposes would ensure that stem cells could be drawn only from embryos that fertility clinics otherwise would discard and with the informed consent of donors.

The promise offered by these cells has garnered wide bipartisan support and is likely to be among the top issues of the 2008 election.

For now, however, Bush's characteristic stubbornness will force people afflicted with debilitating and life-threatening diseases to wait and hope that the next president places a higher value on their health and well-being.