McCain-Palin versus Obama-Biden on Stem Cell Research
POLICY SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES. Both the Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates, along with their VPs, express pro-science, pro-research views. Senators Obama and McCain recognize that biomedicine has the potential to heal terrible illnesses, and both have voted in the Senate to overturn the Bush administration restrictions on embryonic stem cell lines.
Senator McCain, however, opposes a research method — called "somatic cell nuclear transfer" (SCNT), also known as "therapeutic cloning" — that offers a promising path to life-saving therapies.
In the 3rd debate, Senator McCain accused Senator Obama of "running attack ads that say that I oppose federal funding for stem cell research. I don’t." But In fact, McCain has pledged to support a bill to criminalize therapeutic cloning research. Harvard leukemia researcher George Daley says: “I am researching SCNT and so would be considered a criminal if McCain gets his way. It’s a sad society that starts criminalizing legitimate science.”
Senator Obama, unlike Senator McCain, is against the prohibition of therapeutic cloning research.
As explained in Stem Cell Primer, this research method uses blastocysts (5-day old embryos that are so small they cannot be seen by the unaided eye) to generate embryonic stem cells that can help us understand disease origins and might facilitate the replacement of damaged cells and tissues by healthy ones. Contrary to what is often said by opponents of embryonic stem cell research, it is not the case that adult stem cell research can substitute for it. Almost all the scientists in this field agree that embryonic stem cell research remains essential to the search for scientific knowledge and effective, stem cell-based therapies.
Where do the VP candidates stand on stem cell research issues? During a 2006 Alaska gubernatorial debate, Palin, a fundamentalist Christian who does not believe in the theory of evolution, was asked for her views on the research. She replied that "it’s interesting that so many questions revolve around this centeredness I have of respecting life and the potential of every human life, but no, stem cell research would ultimately end in destruction of life. I couldn’t support." Biden, on the other hand, strongly supports embryonic stem cell research. He has commented that Palin’s opposition to the research is not in keeping with her expressed support for children with developmental disabilities.
The answers given by McCain and Obama to a set of questions about science policy posed by a group of scientists, engineers, business leaders, and academics (see Science Debate 2008), reveal profound differences between the two candidates:
MCCAIN ON STEM CELL RESEARCH OBAMA ON STEM CELL RESEARCH
| McCAIN: "While I support federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, I believe clear lines should be drawn that reflect a refusal to sacrifice moral values and ethical principles for the sake of scientific progress. Moreover, I believe that recent scientific breakthroughs raise the hope that one day this debate will be rendered academic. I also support funding for other research programs, including amniotic fluid and adult stem cell research which hold much scientific promise and do not involve the use of embryos. I oppose the intentional creation of human embryos for research purposes and I voted to ban the practice of “fetal farming,” making it a federal crime for researchers to use cells or fetal tissue from an embryo created for research purposes."
Senator McCain introduced the above remarks by explaining his general approach: "I have a broad and cohesive vision for the future of American innovation. My policies will provide broad pools of capital, low taxes and incentives for research in America, a commitment to a skilled and educated workforce, and a dedication to opening markets around the globe. I am committed to streamlining burdensome regulations and effectively protecting American intellectual property in the United States and around the globe. … Above all, my commitment to innovation is a commitment to the well-established entrepreneurial spirit and creativity of America’s thinkers and tinkerers whose inventions have improved our lives and promoted prosperity. To maintain American leadership, I believe we must nurture the conditions under which entrepreneurs can continue to prosper by bringing new innovators to market and the American people can reap the rewards. " |
OBAMA: "Stem cell research holds the promise of improving our lives in at least three ways—by substituting normal cells for damaged cells to treat diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, heart failure and other disorders; by providing scientists with safe and convenient models of disease for drug development; and by helping to understand fundamental aspects of normal development and cell dysfunction. For these reasons, I strongly support expanding research on stem cells. I believe that the restrictions that President Bush has placed on funding of human embryonic stem cell research have handcuffed our scientists and hindered our ability to compete with other nations. As president, I will lift the current administration’s ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after August 9, 2001 through executive order, and I will ensure that all research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight. I recognize that some people object to government support of research that requires cells to be harvested from human embryos. However, hundreds of thousands of embryos stored in the U.S. in in-vitro fertilization clinics will not be used for reproductive purposes, and will eventually be destroyed. I believe that it is ethical to use these extra embryos for research that could save lives when they are freely donated for that express purpose. I am also aware that there have been suggestions that human stem cells of various types, derived from sources other than embryos, make the use of embryonic stem cells unnecessary. I don’t agree. While adult stem cells, such as those harvested from blood or bone marrow, are already used for treatment of some diseases, they do not have the versatility of embryonic stem cells and cannot replace them. Recent discoveries indicate that adult skin cells can be reprogrammed to behave like stem cells; these are exciting findings that might in the future lead to an alternate source of highly versatile stem cells. However, embryonic stem cells remain the “gold standard,” and studies of all types of stem cells should continue in parallel for the foreseeable future. Rather than restrict the funding of such research, I favor responsible oversight of it, in accord with recent reports from the National Research Council. Recommendations from the NRC reports are already being followed by institutions that conduct human embryonic stem cell research with funds from a variety of sources. An expanded, federally-supported stem cell research program will encourage talented U.S. scientists to engage in this important new field, will allow more effective oversight, and will signal to other countries our commitment to compete in this exciting area of medical research." |
DIFFERENCES IN UNDERLYING PHILOSOPHY AND VALUES
As illustrated by his statment above, McCain views scientific research, including stem cell research, as best supported and carried out by the private sector rather than by public institutions. His model for scientific advance is that of the individual entrepreneur who brings his or her discoveries to the marketplace.
This business-centered view regards scientists as courageous individuals who confront and defeat disease. Great scientists are exceptional seekers who pursue and fulfill their own unique vision. To be sure, there is some truth in this story. The great heroes of medical science — people like Pasteur and Virchow and Salk — vastly advanced human understanding. But they did not do so without extensive collaboration with others and reliance upon public resources. Today more than ever before, biomedical research is a collaborative enterprise, involving public and private institutions and scientists distributed around the globe, supporting and learning from one another. Intellectual property, which McCain pledges to protect, sometimes encourages innovation, but may also erect barriers that block information sharing and cooperation. Scientists advance the frontiers of knowledge most creatively and effectively when they think and act in free association.
McCain’s entrepreneurial model of scientific progress recognizes the vital role of individual initiative and creativity, but doesn’t by itself provide an adequate basis for developing sound public policy to support science and medicine.
