Republican presidential nominee John McCain would criminalize a promising branch of stem cell research, according to a statement issued by the candidate's campaign. Though such legislation would probably not survive Congress, he might extend President Bush's much-criticized limitation of embryonic stem cell research.

"I read the statement as a bad omen for stem cell research under a McCain administration," said George Daley, a leukemia researcher at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

The McCain campaign responded on Monday to questions about stem cell research posed by ScienceDebate2008, a nonpartisan science advocacy group.

In his statement, McCain at first claimed to support ESC research. However, he said "clear lines should be drawn that reflect a refusal to sacrifice moral values and ethical principles for the sake of scientific progress" – a qualification that disturbed many scientists and bioethicists with its ambiguity.

McCain also took a harder line than the Bush administration with somatic cell nuclear transfer, better known as therapeutic cloning – a cutting-edge process that could some day provide personalized embryonic stem cell therapies. Though currently legal, McCain would outlaw the technique.

The new stance is an abrupt reversal for the Arizona senator. As recently as 2007, McCain appeared to favor embryonic stem cell research more strongly than most of the Republican party, especially its most religiously conservative members. "I believe that we need to fund this," he said during a presidential candidates' debate in May 2007.

Since then, he's become steadily cagier in his support, courting Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, an ardent opponent of all ESC research, and avoiding discussion of ESCs in favor of alternative cell types. Those familiar with the debate interpreted McCain's latest platform, which framed his support in the language of research opponents, as a signal that President Bush's research-limiting policies may continue.

"He cannot be trusted to be a supporter of embryonic stem cell research," said University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Art Caplan. "He is moving toward a straight pro-life stance and this sort of answer can only be read as such."

The language of this week's statement, said University of Wisconsin bioethicist R. Alta Charo, "is a close echo of Bush's language used to support the ban on funding for work with newer lines."

Under President Bush, federal funding is denied for all research on ESC lines developed after Aug. 9, 2001 – the date of the moratorium's announcement.

Only 21 such lines exist, and many of these are contaminated; scientists say they are insufficient for serious research, much to fulfill their potential for treating a wide range of diseases.

"McCain's answer is deliberately ambiguous," said Charo. "Nowhere does he state that he will continue to support expanding embryonic stem cell research funding beyond the Bush policy."

McCain also denounced "the intentional creation of human embryos for research purposes" – a near-verbatim version of the Republican Party platform – and calls somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) a form of "fetal farming."

In SCNT, an egg's nucleus is removed and replaced with the nucleus of a patient's cell. Under chemical inducement, it forms an embryo from which, after five days of growth, scientists can harvest patient-specific embryonic stem cells – the Holy Grail of regenerative medicine.

Under President Bush's policy, SCNT is denied federal funding, but still legal. McCain would make it "a federal crime for researchers to use cells or fetal tissue from an embryo created for research purposes."

"I am researching SCNT and so would be considered a criminal if McCain gets his way," said the Harvard researcher Daley. "It's a sad society that starts criminalizing legitimate science."

Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology, noted that the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Medical Association all support SCNT. McCain "would fine and/or imprison scientists for this work," said Lanza.

Thomas Murray, president of the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan bioethics think tank, said that McCain's proposition would almost certainly be rejected by Congress, which has repeatedly rejected ESC-criminalizing legislation. Instead, he said, McCain was likely trying to placate religious fundamentalists.

"But if implemented, this could have quite radical implications," he said. "It's a far leap from anything resembling current U.S. policy."

The McCain campaign did not respond to e-mail or telephone queries regarding this story.

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Image: Dan Bennett

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