WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- President Bush Tuesday put his signature on legislation creating a network for storing and distributing stem cells from umbilical-cord blood.
Supporters said the new cell banks would increase the number of cord-blood samples available for transplant and make it easier for the samples to be matched with viable recipients.
But the law's signing did nothing to defuse the far more controversial debate on embryonic-stem-cell research. For years the issue has locked Congress in a fight over the ethics of destroying embryos for their stem cells and the scientific promise of the research.
Cord stem cells are isolated from the umbilical cords of newborn infants. The cells have proven successful in treating a number of blood-based diseases, including sickle-cell anemia.
The cells have been stored and distributed for years, though researchers have complained that a lack of coordination and donors leaves many potential recipients without transplants.
The bill signed Tuesday authorizes $265 million in government spending to create a national network for banking cord-blood donations and sets up a computer database to make it easier for physicians to search nationwide for matches for their patients.
"Thousands of Americans who might have otherwise continued to suffer or died will now be saved because larger and diverse inventories of umbilical cord stem cells will be available," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who sponsored the bill in the House, where it passed in May.
Smith is among a group of lawmakers who promotes cord cells as a non-controversial source of stem cells. It is the more controversial source -- human embryos -- that is still likely to be a point of contention in the Senate in early 2006.
The House voted in May to expand federally funded embryonic-stem-cell research beyond strict limits imposed by President Bush in August 2001. Researchers charge that 77 cell lines qualifying for funds in the limits have turned out to be mostly useless for long-term research.
When the cord-blood bill passed the Senate Friday, Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., repeated a pledge to allow the Senate to vote on the House embryonic-stem-cell bill. Frist has also said he will vote to back the bill, which remains opposed by some conservative lawmakers who are against the destruction of human embryos.
Opponents say they'll insist on pairing the stem-cell bill with debates on other controversial research issues including a ban on cloning for the purposes of disease research.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a pro-life conservative who strongly backs both cord blood and embryonic-stem-cell research, told United Press International that promoting cord-blood stem cells would do little to assuage proponents of funding research using an embryonic source.
"It comes down to one issue: Are we going to do anything on embryonic stem cells?" Hatch said.
