U.S. Sen. Kirk calls for action on stem cell law
U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk issued a challenge Monday to Senate Democrats to pass legislation supporting the Obama administration's expansion of embryonic stem cell research, saying the approach offers "the best promise" to cure certain diseases.
The Illinois Republican spoke at a Northwestern University facility in Chicago, where he toured a stem cell research lab and hosted a symposium on the search for medical breakthroughs using stem cells.
Kirk, who has described himself as a fiscal conservative and a social moderate, supports federal legislation to codify an executive order issued by President Barack Obama in 2009 advancing stem cell research. He supported similar legislation when he was a member of the U.S. House.
"If senior Democratic senators choose not to move this legislation in this Congress, I will," Kirk said Monday. Court challenges to taxpayer-financed stem cell research make it necessary for Congress to act, he said.
Dr. John Kessler, director of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Stem Cell Institute, said he's grateful to Kirk for championing legislation he called "absolutely essential for the field." Uncertainty over federal funding hurts science and "is a huge disincentive to our young and most promising investigators to do human embryonic stem cell research," Kessler said.
Obama's executive order opened new embryonic stem cell lines for research on treatments and possible cures for conditions from diabetes to spinal cord injuries. Opponents object because the cells come from destroyed human embryos. Current research uses cells gathered long ago, but opponents fear research success would encourage new embryo destruction.
In April, a federal appeals court ruling allowed federal support to continue for embryonic stem cell research, but this issue isn't settled.
"Stem cell research offers the best promise to cure juvenile diabetes and certain blood cancers," Kirk said in a statement. "That is why I believe Republicans and Democrats should unite behind keeping the United States first in medical research."