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Politics

Stem cell votes, research coincide

Lawmakers and lobbyists smell a plot; others say the science is hot.

By WASHINGTON POST
Published June 11, 2007

WASHINGTON - Coincidence or conspiracy? You be the judge.

Thursday, June 7. After months of intense lobbying by scientists and patient advocacy groups, the House is ready to vote on legislation that would loosen President Bush's restrictions on the use of human embryos in stem cell research. But that very morning, the lead story in major newspapers is about research just published in a British journal that shows stem cells can be made from ordinary skin cells.

The work was in mice, but the take-home message that suffuses Capitol Hill is that there is no need to experiment on embryos after all.

If that doesn't sound suspicious, consider this:

Monday, Jan. 8. Congress is ready to vote on legislation that would loosen Bush's restrictions on stem cell research. But that very morning, newspapers tout new research just published in a British journal suggesting that stem cells can be made from easily obtained placenta cells.

Is there a plot afoot?

Lots of lobbyists, members of Congress and even a few scientists are starting to think so.

"It is ironic that every time we vote on this legislation, all of a sudden there is a major scientific discovery that basically says, 'You don't have to do stem cell research, ' " Democratic Caucus chairman Rahm Emanuel said on the House floor Thursday.

Even some scientists, those exemplars of rationality, couldn't help but wonder if somebody, somewhere, was - if not out to get them - at least taking some pleasure in irritating them. "I don't think this is the most sensitive timing for Nature to release these papers, " said Harvard stem cell scientist Kevin Eggan, the lead author of one of the articles that appeared in the London-based journal on Thursday.

Twice in six months. What are the odds?

Actually, pretty good, experts said. After all, stem cell research is hot, and a lot of it is focused on finding ways to obtain the therapeutically promising cells without the scientific and ethical complications of dealing with human embryos.

"Papers are coming out about embryonic stem cells so regularly that the odds are going to be high that some will come out when Congress is voting on them, " said David Ropeik, an expert in risk assessment at Harvard Extension School.

Perhaps not surprisingly, it isn't only proponents of stem cell research who over-connect the dots. Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposes embryo research, said, "I will confess, I said to one of the congressional staffers of my general persuasion: 'Doesn't God have a sense of humor?' "

[Last modified June 11, 2007, 06:46:31]