July 18, 2006

S. 2754, the Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act, directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to pour money into far less promising methods of deriving stem cells from adult cells. S. 3504, the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act, bans unethical forms of research that are already prohibited by law. I sincerely doubt that these worthless bills will convince any red state voter that their Senator supports stem cell research.

I will vote for the Fetus Farming bill simply because this practice is already against the law.  Therefore, this bill is meaningless, but also harmless.

However, I will vote against the Alternative Pluripotent bill because it sets a dangerous precedent in choosing one form of research over the other. Much as Congress would never instruct the NIH to cure cancer, but only in a certain manner, we shouldn’t dictate the kind of stem cell research scientists should and should not practice. This bill requires the Secretary of HHS to conduct research into so-called "alternative therapies."  But these therapies do not currently exist and their development would shift scarce research dollars away from embryonic research.

If Senator Santorum and President Bush truly believe that it’s morally superior to discard single cells in a freezer rather than to use them to help millions of Americans with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes, then they should have the guts to say so without another sham bill for political cover.