Harkin: Americans Still Waiting for Expansion of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

HARKIN: AMERICANS STILL WAITING FOR EXPANSION OF EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH
~ "This fight is far from over" ~

WASHINGTON D.C. ---- Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, today said new breakthroughs in stem cell research, including those announced recently by Advanced Cell Technologies, should not end Congressional efforts to pass legislation that would expand federal funding for this field of study.

"One thing is clear," Harkin said. "This new technique, even if it proves successful, does not in any way diminish the need to pass H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which the President vetoed in July."

Nineteen researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), leading Nobel Prize scientists and countless health and medical leaders have all advocated for the expansion of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. NIH estimates there are currently 400 stem cell lines worldwide. Because of the President's arbitrary restrictions, federal funding can only be used to study just 21 of those lines, all of which are contaminated by mouse cells. Harkin, together with Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), has promised to reintroduce the legislation when the 110th Congress convenes in January.

"We will continue to make expansion of embryonic stem cell research a priority in the next Congress," Harkin said. "This fight does not end with the President's veto."

Titled "Recent Controversies in Stem Cell Research," the subcommittee meeting included testimony from Dr. James Battey, Chairman, NIH Stem Cell Task Force; Dr. Robert Lanza, Advanced Cell Technologies; Dr. Kevin Eggan, Harvard University; and Dr. Ronald Green, Dartmouth College.

Harkin's complete opening statement from today's hearing is included below:

"Thank you, Chairman Specter, for holding this hearing today. There's been a lot of confusion about the recent announcement that scientists have derived stem cell lines from individual blastomeres, and I hope this hearing will help set some things straight.

"The confusion is regrettable, and I believe it could have been avoided if people had acted more responsibly.

"First, I want to applaud ACT for breaking new ground on the derivation of stem cells. This company showed for the first time that a stem cell line could be derived from a single human blastomere, and that's an interesting development.

"However, ACT should have made it clearer from the start that none of the embryos discussed in the Nature paper survived the experiment. ACT created the impression that it had done something that may be possible in theory, but it hasn't actually accomplished.

"Second, the journal Nature made things worse by putting out a press release that promoted that false impression.

"And third, the media overhyped this announcement, portraying it as the silver bullet that will solve everyone's ethical questions about stem cell research. That is just wishful thinking.

"What we need to do now is step back, examine what it was that ACT really accomplished, and discuss what it means for the future of stem cell research.

"But one thing is clear: This new technique, even if IT proves successful, does not in any way diminish the need to pass HR 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which the President vetoed in July.

"The NIH estimates that there are 400 stem cell lines worldwide. Right now, because of the President's arbitrary restrictions, federal funding can be used to study just 21 of those lines, all of which are contaminated by mouse cells.

"Even if the method described by ACT actually works, it will still take years for it to produce a substantial number of new lines. Those will be years in which people continue to die of Parkinson's disease, ALS, diabetes, cancer, and dozens of other diseases that could one day be treated or cured by stem cell research. We shouldn't make the mistake of holding out all our hope for new, unproven methods of deriving stem cells, when we have hundreds of lines that already exist. Scientists need access to more lines now - not years from now.

"Again, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for holding this hearing, and I look forward to the testimony from our witnesses."

http://harkin.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=262476