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CNN Live At Daybreak

Reaction to Cell Research Funding Decision

Aired August 10, 2001 - 08:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Now for some political feedback on the stem cell funding decision, here is Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas. He's an opponent of...

SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), KANSAS: Good morning.

MCEDWARDS: ... of stem cell research federal funding for it. And Congresswoman Connie Morella is here as well. She's a Republican from Maryland who supports federal funding on this issue.

Thank you both for being here.

I'd like to start with you, Rep. Morella. I'd like to ask you how you feel about this compromise, as the White House puts it? I suppose you could call it a deferral as well because it looks like this issue is not decided -- that there's going to be a couple more years of study and then this issue's going to get revisited again.

REP. CONNIE MORELLA (R), MARYLAND: I think you're quite correct, but I do want to applaud the president for reflecting the fact that research on stem cells is important. It does give hope to millions of people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, juvenile diabetes, ALS and a -- and a lot of other debilitating diseases.

But my feeling is that his statement last night does not go far enough. It is limited. It does not expand the use of the embryos -- the early embryos that are (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from research, which will continue to provide tremendous breakthroughs. The private sector is doing that, other countries are doing that, we need to have strict guidelines and we need to have the federal accountability that would come from the federal funding.

MCEDWARDS: And, Senator Brownback, are you concerned that this opens the door to much more?

BROWNBACK: Well, I'm concerned about this whole gauntlet of bioethical issues that we'll be going into. The House recently voted on the issue of human cloning -- to ban all forms of human cloning in the country. That issue will come up in the Senate.

But I thought the president last night gave a very thoughtful, very considered speech. He obviously spent a lot of time on this and knows that we're headed now down a road of a series of ethical issues, that we have great promise with the potential we know taking place in stem cells -- adult stem cells, embryonic but that we've got to proceed cautiously. And I think that's a wise route for us to go at this point in time.

MCEDWARDS: And just a political question, if we can turn the corner a little bit here, Rep. Morella, to what extent does this help define the president, I mean either as someone who's willing to move towards the center or someone who's, you know, willing to be deferent to conservatives?

MORELLA: Well, I think when you have a president who has anguished over this and decides that he is going to address the entire nation on it on all networks, you have a president who really cares and who's given it a great deal of thought. For that, again, I applaud him.

Now remember, he heard from Mrs. Reagan, probably heard from Mrs. Bush and he's heard from a lot of scientists and a lot of conservatives on Senator Brownback's side, as well as on the host side, too, and so I think he put it all together and he kept his own counsel and made the decision.

I, however, have never heard of 60 cell lines. Also, cell lines are limited in terms of their duration, and there's a lot that needs to be looked at in terms of the details. The advisory committee -- that we already have had an advisory committee from the National Institutes of Health, so we don't want long delays. So I applaud him for opening up the concept of research on embryonic stem cells, but I would submit that we need to move further so that we can expand on that kind of research.

MCEDWARDS: All right. Well, Senator Brownback, what are your thoughts on this on the issue of how it defines President Bush and what the implications are for within the party?

BROWNBACK: Well, you know it's very interesting to me that the first address -- major address of this president to the nation is about bioethical issues. I think that tells you really about the importance of this set of issues and I think that is a defining moment for the president. And I think overall, he handled it quite well.

I have some qualms with what he put forward but this is -- you're going to be hearing about this in the months and years ahead because we want to cure these diseases yet you have to be able to look at and say how do we treat human life. And it's got to be treated with dignity at all phases of human life. This is going to be an important debate for us as a nation. And I think we're going to handle it well, that we're going to find the cures to these diseases and we're going to do it the right way.

MCEDWARDS: Well, I guess that's the point, too, isn't it, because this science is so new. I mean, Rep. Morella, you just made the point that these stem cell lines that he's allowing the federal funding to occur with are limited and yet we had the Health and Human Services Secretary on, you know, last hour saying scientists don't really even know yet whether these can reproduce themselves in perpetuity or whether there's a limitation here. So there's so much to be sorted out here. Rep. Morella, what do you do in the meantime,...

MORELLA: There is.

MCEDWARDS: ... do you push for more?

MORELLA: There is a lot that needs to be discussed and that's why it's time now for the scientists to enter the picture to discuss what can be done. What the president has suggested in using the current stem cell embryos that we have is that we do not look into using any other embryos in the fertility clinics that are going to be discarded. And so that offers a great deal of opportunity rather than discarding them to be able to utilize them. And I think, again, the scientists will indicate what can be done, what should be done and the ethicists and members of Congress will enter into the discussion also. And I think we're going to be moving forward. At least this is a step. Even though I think it's a small step, Senator Brownback probably thinks it's a major step,...

MCEDWARDS: Right.

MORELLA: ... it is a small step.

MCEDWARDS: And we will all be listening and watching.

Thank you both for being here, Rep. Morella,...

BROWNBACK: Thank you.

MCEDWARDS: ... Senator Brownback, appreciate it.

MORELLA: Thank you.

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