Stem cell backers doubt McCain’s support

Advocates for greater federal funding of embryonic stem cell research are worried that John McCain will do an about-face on the controversial issue if he wins the presidency.

McCain’s presidential campaign has sought to win over religious conservatives and other factions, including activists who oppose abortion rights and stem cell research.

{mosads}Rep. Mike Castle (Del.), the chief Republican sponsor of stem cell bills vetoed by President Bush, said he wasn’t sure whether a President McCain would sign stem cell research legislation.

“Based on his votes in the Senate, the answer to that is yes,” said Castle, an early supporter of McCain who endorsed the Arizona Republican senator in February 2007.

“The question becomes: Will the pro-life movement be able to persuade him otherwise between now and the election?” said Castle, who supports abortion rights.

During the primary campaign, every GOP presidential hopeful but McCain and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani opposed more federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. The National Right to Life Committee initially backed former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.).

Yet National Right to Life Committee Executive Director David O’Steen said anti-abortion rights activists think they can turn McCain to their way of thinking on stem cells.

“We’d be hopeful that he’d leave [Bush’s] policy in place,” O’Steen said. What McCain might actually do, he cautioned, is “an open question.”

McCain has previously changed his mind on stem cell legislation. During an appearance on “Meet the Press” in 2005, McCain said his policy switch occurred after “getting briefed by very smart people on this issue and including discussing this with Nancy Reagan.”

Nancy Reagan, a strong proponent of embryonic stem cell legislation, endorsed McCain in March.

In the Senate, McCain twice voted for legislation that would have allowed the federal government to provide more money for research on embryonic stem cells. The research destroys the embryos, which raises objections from anti-abortion rights activists, but scientists believe the stem cells offer the promise of cures to ailments like Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and spinal cord injuries.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), McCain’s rival for the presidency, has been more explicit in his support for embryonic stem cell research. Obama co-sponsored both bills vetoed by Bush and routinely raises the issue on the campaign trail. McCain is not a co-sponsor of the legislation.

Obama would act unilaterally via executive order to implement standards for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research in line with the bills Congress passed, his campaign told The Hill.

McCain’s campaign did not respond to The Hill’s questions or numerous attempts to obtain a comment for this article. In February, the campaign issued a statement to the Wisconsin State Journal standing behind his record but containing the language O’Steen quoted as evidence of McCain’s flexibility on the issue.

“John McCain does support federal funding for embryonic stem cell research,” the February statement says in part. “[H]e believes that recent scientific breakthroughs may render this debate academic,” according to the statement.

“I don’t think he’s ideologically committed” to embryonic stem cell research, O’Steen said of McCain.

“While Barack Obama is ideologically committed to it, John McCain has indicated that [embryonic] stem cell research is, in his words, ‘academic,’ “ he said.

O’Steen’s group, which endorsed McCain once his victory in the Republican primary was assured, acknowledges that McCain’s votes on stem cells run counter to its principles, but gives him high marks for his “pro-life” voting record overall.

Several recent studies suggest that stem cells as potent as those from embryos can be derived from adult cells. Harvard researchers last week announced they had created 10 new, disease-specific stem cell lines from adult cells.

Most scientists still believe embryonic stem cells are the most promising, however. Harvard’s George Daley called them the “gold standard” last week and said, “At least for the foreseeable future — I would argue forever — they’re going to be extremely valuable tools.”

Nevertheless, conservatives emphasize these new areas as evidence that the science can advance without destroying embryos. “Our belief and our real hope is that the science is going to outpace the interest in embryonic stem cell research,” O’Steen said.

McCain’s campaign website does not state that he supports embryonic stem cell research. Instead, a statement titled “Addressing the Moral Concerns of Advanced Technology” touts “promising research programs, including amniotic fluid and adult stem cell research and other types of scientific study that does not involve the use of human embryos.”

McCain’s record of support for stem cell research goes deeper than his two floor votes. In June 2004, he was one of 58 senators who wrote a letter asking Bush to lift his restrictions on funding for embryonic stem cell research.

When the Senate first voted in July 2006, McCain took to the Senate floor to argue that federal funding and federal oversight of embryonic stem cell research were necessary to prevent “ethically objectionable” research into human cloning and other areas. “I am concerned about the path that some of the unregulated research leads us down,” McCain said.

Like Castle, McCain is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a group of self-described centrist lawmakers that played a prominent role in promoting the 2006 and 2007 stem cell bills.

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), who co-authored the vetoed stem cell bills with Castle, said she was grateful for McCain’s past support. “That’s great and I hope he would do the same” in the future, she said.

But DeGette maintained that Obama is more dedicated to the issue and noted he would act swiftly to rescind Bush’s policy.

Under the same presidential authority used by Bush in 2001, the next president could simply revoke Bush’s policy and replace it with his own. DeGette said she told Obama, “I think your first act as president should be to lift President Bush’s executive order.”

Obama’s campaign confirmed that he would use that authority to permit research under standards based on the DeGette-Castle bill.

“If elected president, he would issue an executive order mirroring this policy, which would permit federally funded research on stem cells lines derived after Aug. 9, 2001, provided that [the embryos] would otherwise be discarded. He would ensure federal funding is consistent with the highest ethical guidelines,” the campaign said in a statement.

Castle, who has a contentious history with anti-abortion rights groups, predicted McCain would not act of his own volition. “He would probably wait for Congress,” he said.

The political debate over current federal policy began almost exactly seven years ago, when Bush established the first-ever guidelines allowing federal funding for embryonic stem cell research on Aug. 9, 2001.

Under Bush’s policy, federal dollars can go only to stem cell lines created before Aug. 9, 2001, and that were derived, with donors’ explicit permission, from unused frozen embryos in fertility clinics. The policy also forbids the creation of embryos solely for research and the cloning of embryos.

Currently, there are 21 stem cell lines available under this policy.