Stem cell debates continue in US

A bill approved last week by a subcommittee of the US Senate would allow limited federally financed stem cell research, and give President Bush discretion over how to control this. The proposal, put forward by Republican senator Arlen Specter as part of a spending bill, would allow Bush to follow through on his proposal to restrict the research to the 64 stem cell lines that he said already exist.

It would also mean he could allow further stem cell research projects, using embryos left over from fertility treatments, as long as the embryos used for the research would otherwise be destroyed. Consent for their use in research must be granted by the people whose fertility treatments created them.

But Scott McClellan, a White House spokesman said that Bush would be likely to stand by his earlier decision on stem cell research. There is another version of the bill, preferred by the White House, which makes no changes to the current law. Bush announced in August that he would only permit research on those stem cell lines that he said already existed. Critics challenged the number of lines that were actually available for research.