Stem-cell research decision: Some funding, many questions

Bush's approach to limit research is viewed by many as a workable compromise, though some scientists wonder if progress will also be limited.

By Stephanie Stapleton, AMNews staff. Aug. 27, 2001.

Washington -- Sixty cell lines. Since President Bush's Aug. 9 decision to allow federal funding for limited human embryonic stem-cell research, a set of 60 cell lines has become the focus of the research enterprise's hopes, doubts and questions.

This number represents the alleged worldwide inventory of cell colonies that met certain ethical criteria at the time of the president's announcement -- and the only human embryonic stem cells on which government financed research can now be done.

But do all these lines really exist? Are they viable? Are they accessible? And are they enough to lead biomedical science to cures for a range of chronic and debilitating conditions?

These are the practical issues that have emerged in the wake of Bush's effort to solve the ethical challenge of supporting embryonic stem-cell research, an area, he said, that "offers both great promise and great peril."

The plan, announced during a nationally televised address, is the culmination of months of study and soul-searching. It will now likely alter the scientific status quo. Although it sets a clear boundary, it gives a long-awaited green light to federal financing.

"The federal funding side is an important part," said Lawrence S.B. Goldstein, PhD, a professor from the Dept. of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. "What is completely unknown is whether that limit -- the 60 lines -- will be inconsequential or crippling."

For the practice of medicine, however, that answer will shake out over the long term. [...]