biomedical and scientific groups began an intense lobbying effort to convince Congress to resist conservative campaign to block federal support for research human stem cells. Both parties should encounter Capitol Hill in the coming weeks. The first skirmishes could take place as early as 23 and 24 February, when Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Harold Varmus, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), before committees of appropriations Congress to defend their 00 budget proposals.
row erupted this week as conservative members of the House and Senate, demanding a change in policy, sent angry letters to the Clinton administration. The Conservatives have attacked an HHS-NIH decision to fund research on human stem cells. These cells, which scientists hope to develop in a variety of transplantable tissues are derived from aborted fetuses and human "spare" embryos in fertility clinics. In a letter of 16 February to Shalala, eight Republican senators, including Sam Brownback of Texas and Jesse Helms of North Carolina, have expressed concern that this research could "give incentives for the killing of human embryos."
Five days earlier, 70 House members led by abortion opponent Jay Dickey (R-AR) had written a letter to Shalala as severe, complaining that HHS misinterpreted a recent law that bans US funding for research that involves the destruction of human embryos. In January, HHS found that the law does not apply to embryonic stem cells because they can not grow naturally in embryos. Indeed, Varmus announced January 19 that researchers may soon be funded to study these cells ( Science , 22 January, p. 465). But members of Dickey group - which includes prominent conservative Republicans such as Henry Hyde (IL), Richard Armey (TX) and Tom DeLay (TX) - disagree vehemently. HHS has read the law too restrictive, they claim; Congress intended to block not only the destruction of the embryo, but also "looking after dependent or destruction or injury of a human embryo."
Neither Shalala nor Varmus yet responded to Conservative calls. But today, 70 scientific groups, academic, and patients sent a petition to Congress, prepared by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which calls for research on stem cells. This field, communication AAMC said, holds "enormous potential for the treatment of many diseases" and should be allowed to go ahead.
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