Capital Report: Springtime for Fetal Tissue Research?

Abstract

Springtime for Fetal Tissue Research? One day soon, Louis W. Sullivan may have to go to court to defend his ban on federal funding of research that uses fetal tissue. After months of planning and alliance-building, a coalition of groups that want to find treatments for Parkinson's disease is at last preparing to file suit against Sullivan, head of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to Judy Rosner of the United Parkinson Foundation. They want to overturn the ban so that research into alleviating Parkinson symptoms by transplanting fetal brain cells into the brains of Parkinson's patients can go forward. The lawsuit is just one of an array of tactics designed to force the government to change its mind about the moratorium on research with fetal tissue, in effect since 1988. Proponents believe grafts of fetal tissues are potentially applicable to an assortment of serious health problems--not just Parkinson's, but diabetes, disorders of the immune system, perhaps even Alzheimer's disease. Opponents like Sullivan say they are worried that federal sponsorship of this research will encourage abortion. If litigation fails to work, legislation remains a possibility. Rep. Waxman (D-CA) still plans to reintroduce the Research Freedom Act, which would not only overturn the moratorium, but also reduce the Secretary of Health's ability to restrict other federally funded research. The bill was drawn that way partly to widen its constituency. Waxman's staff is hoping the research community will see that the moratorium means other kinds of research are also vulnerable, and lobby for the bill even though they don't care about fetal tissue research. Waxman, long-time chair of the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, has a lot of influence on health policy. it is not clear his power will prevail on this controversial issue. Last fall his bill got as far as approval by the parent Energy and Commerce Committee before dying. Medical groups favor the bill, but are not terribly hopeful. Henry is a very brave man, says Jim Drake, who lobbies for the American Medical Association. But the opposition is still going to be there. Subcommittee staff members say they don't even want to guess how well the bill might do in the full House. And then there's the Senate to persuade, to say nothing of the White House, which has opposed it strongly (and which presumably ordered Sullivan) to issue the ban in the first place). The constituency that favors research with fetal tissue is at present comparatively small, so opposition costs the Bush administration very little. In return, it helps shore up the President's always-shaky relations with conservatives, who are ever doubtful about the depth of his commitment to their agenda. On the other hand, in January Bush chose Bernardine Healy as the new head of the National Institutes of Health. Healy is a research cardiologist with solid conservative credentials as deputy director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy under Reagan. she was also on a government advisory committee that unanimously supported fetal tissue research. Does that mean the President is about to backpedal on this issue as he has on others? Unlikely. Like an often-rejected suitor who remains determined to marry, Bush probably settled for Healy, despite their incompatibilities, because she was the first to say yes. The NIH post, not a very powerful one, has been embarrassingly vacant since August 1989. The Administration's awkward first attempts to fill it drove away several candidates, some of them reportedly annoyed because they had been quizzed about their positions on. …