Feature Story (750+)

Now, under new office, researchers and scientists are in extreme keenness, that President Barack Obama will vote in favor and support the senate bill that allows federal funding for stem cell research. This already introduced bill, was passed by both houses of congress when under the administration of former president George W. Bush. The bill will federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. When under the Bush administration, only 21 stem cell lines were eligible for funding, and now hundreds will be accessible for federal funding.

Embryonic stem cells, are undifferentiated cells that have been quarantined in early stages of growth. These cells have the ability and aptitude to be specialized into almost any function within the body and reproduce in large amounts.

Yes, the controversial debate arises of ethics, but now there are also other ways to collect these embryonic stem cells. For example, Dr. Gregg Poquette explains a way which is becoming increasingly popular. “Typically, couples donate excess embryos from fertility procedures to researchers. Researchers pull the 150 or so cells from inside one of these roughly 6-day-old embryos, destroying it, and grow the cells in a lab.”

In 2006, when former president Bush vetoed the bill, he quoted “taking of innocent human life of the hope of finding medical benefits for others,” in his defense that the bill was too ethically controversial. Bush took the side of religious groups, such as the Catholic Bishops.

Trying to fight against the federal funding, the National Right to Life Committee is arguing that it “opens door to human embryo farms…” and will add even more costs to harvesting cell lines. Rep. Joe Pitts, resonated his concerns for the current declining economy, and has called the additional costs “divisive.”

As did former president Bush, President Obama has placed restrictions on stem cell lines for receiving federal funding. But Obama’s limits aren’t as strict as Bush’s; Bush’s limitations only allowed 21 lines to pass. Although Obama is calling for “appropriate safeguards," allowing research "only when it is both scientifically worthy and responsibly conducted. We will develop strict guidelines, which we will rigorously enforce, because we cannot ever tolerate misuse or abuse." The National Institution of Health will facilitate guidelines that will not allow inappropriate compensation of embryo donors or informed consent.

In 1996, a law was passed that impedes federal funding of “research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed.” Some religious groups have taken on the argument in which that this law makes the research funding illegal. With this law, multiple presidents and major political leaders have interpreted this law to mean that federal funding could be used on the pre-existing stem cell lines. Although the bipartisan stem cell research bill is being voted on again (vetoed twice by Bush in both 2006 and 2007). The bills intent would be to flout the 1996 law.

We just want a fair shot at funding; we aren't asking for special treatment," says stem cell researcher George Daley of Children's Hospital Boston. The National Institute of Health has given an approximation of $938 million that it had given for stem cell grants, in 2008. Researchers will have to apply for funding money through the National Institute of Health. They can do this three times a year. Labs that are looking at cells that bear genetic markers for inherited diseases and have top-rated cells will be the most eligible for funding.

"I will immediately be able to have my NIH-funded graduate students get to work on important disease research they were barred from undertaking," says Harvard's Kevin Eggan. Most stem cell labs have been separated in half; private and federally funded. Before the bill was passed, it put would restrict researchers from using private equipment for research.

Harvard‘s Kevin Casey says that, "…we're going to have to work to catch up to the rest of the world." It will take a few years for the funds to make an effective result. The United Kingdom and Singapore have been giving federal funds to stem cell research since 2001.

By having more disease-specific stem cell lines to look at, researchers will be able to study and configure how these diseases instigated within the body. By finding out how it starts in the cellular level, it would give researchers on the exact genetic defects of the disease. It also give researchers the opportunity to culture the cells and screen them for their specific response to drugs that would help genetic defects. And lastly by having more stem cell lines to study from, it would give this era the name “regenerative medicine.” It would do this by creating immune system-friendly transplant organs; the Geron Corporation recently received Food and Drug Administration authorization to have stem cell research testing of nerve stem cell injections for patients with spinal cord injuries.