And What About The Science?

If President Bush hoped that his decision last week to permit limited federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research would quiet the ferocious debate surrounding the issue, it was a hope that was quickly dashed. Since his announcement, advocates on both sides have continued to find plenty to argue about--whether there are really 60 existing cell lines on which the President would allow research; whether those lines would be sufficient to yield real results; whether the restrictive rules will simply drive U.S. stem-cell researchers to other countries where they can do their work with less government interference.

But nearly everyone agrees on one thing: stem cells, the unspecialized cells the body uses as raw material for tissues and organs, have the potential to treat an astonishing range of ills, including Parkinson's disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's and spinal-cord injuries. After Bush's decision, the question becomes whether they'll ever get a fair chance.

To most people, the idea of researchers dipping freely into an eternally regenerating, federally bankrolled pool of 60 stem-cell lines sounds pretty good, and that's just the way the President wanted it. "Research on these 60 lines could...lead to breakthrough therapies," Bush said. Maybe--provided scientists can get hold of them.

It was the National Institutes of Health that arrived at the 60 figure, conducting a worldwide survey of labs to determine which ones had viable cell lines already in inventory. As recently as last month, the NIH put the figure at just 30, but after what a senior Administration official described as an "arduous process" of searching, the number doubled.

The day after Bush's speech, the Administration had boosted the figure even higher, to 65. And though the White House originally reported that only half a dozen of them were derived in U.S. labs, that number too was revised upward--to 30. Whatever the actual figure, no one denies that many of the cell lines were developed by private companies that protect creations of this kind with a seawall of patents. "It is very possible that they will either not be available or available at exorbitant prices with all sorts of legal clauses attached," says Yale cell biologist Dr. Diane Krause. Says Dalton Dietrich, scientific director of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis: "That's what all the scientists are asking this morning--how am I going to get my hands on these cells?"

The White House insists that procedures are in place to deal with just this concern--in the form of so-called material transfer agreements, under which the NIH will negotiate with patent holders for access to their cell lines. "Obviously, in any area of medical or scientific research," says the Administration official, "there are companies that get out in front of the technology, and they get the patents."