Frist: Life Begins At Conception, But What The Hell

Rick Weiss writes about an embryonic stem-cell package backed by Sen. Bill Frist (R-Will Never Be President) in Senate to Consider Stem Cell Proposals:

Senate leaders from both parties agreed yesterday to schedule a vote on a package of bills that would loosen President Bush's five-year-old restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research.

With head counts suggesting there are enough votes to pass the legislation and with Bush having promised he would veto it, yesterday's action sets the stage for what could be the first full-blown showdown between the chamber and the president.

The package, which includes language identical to that passed by the House, would allow federal funding of research on embryos that have been slated for destruction at fertility clinics. Those days-old embryos are rich in embryonic stem cells, which scientists say have great potential to treat a wide variety of ailments, including spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and diabetes....

Yesterday [Frist] went to great pains to reassure Americans of his conservative values. "I am pro-life," he said. "I personally believe that human life begins at conception."

But the few cell colonies available to federally funded scientists under the Bush policy are aging and not as high quality as scientists had hoped, he continued. "The responsible thing to do is to come to the floor and consider modifying that policy," Frist said.

Under his own logic, as reported by the Post, this doesn't make sense. I believe life begins at conception, but the responsible thing to do is to kill it. Okay then.

As Weiss notes, Frist's "loosening" on embryonic stem-cell research is tied to his presidential aspirations. Entirely aside from Frist compromising on an issue that had defined him, I will be president before Frist. What a waste.

And since the Post almost never points to non-embryonic stem-cell developments--a field that simultaneously has created far more therapies and is downright giddy with new research--I will. Here's a recent Reuters story via CNET:

A gene named after the mythical Celtic land of the ever young could help explain how to reprogram adult cells into embryonic stem cells to treat diseases, researchers said on Wednesday.

They discovered that the gene called Nanog helped to transform adult mouse cells into embryonic stem cells after cell fusion--when two cells are combined to form a hybrid.

"The effect of Nanog is remarkable. All the hybrid cells became fully converted to embryonic stem cells," said Jose Silva of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, who reported the findings in the journal Nature.

Stem cells are master cells in the body. Scientists believe they could act as a type of human repair system to provide new therapies for illnesses ranging from diabetes to Parkinson's.

Embryonic stem cells found in early embryos have the potential to make any type of cell or tissue. Adult stem cells have a more limited range.

Converting adult stem cells into an embryonic state would eliminate the use of early embryos, which is a scientific and ethical stumbling block for researchers....

Used to be for some legislators too.