Stem cell bill passes faces new veto
Thu, 07 Jun 2007 20:01:26 GMT
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON - The Democratic-controlled Congress passed legislation Thursday to loosen restraints on federally funded embryonic stem cell research, but the bill's supporters lacked the votes needed to override
President Bush's threatened veto.
The 247-176 House vote marked the second time in recent weeks that Democratic leaders chose to confront Bush over an issue on which they command widespread public support, following a veto struggle over a proposed troop withdrawal timetable from
Iraq.
This time the controversy is at the uneasy intersection of medical research and politics, involving a type of cell that the
National Institutes of Health says might serve as "a sort of repair system for the body."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., appealed to Bush moments before the bill passed to sheath his "cruel veto pen," and sign legislation that she said could help "save lives, find cures, and give hope to those suffering."
But the president responded quickly with a written statement that accused majority Democrats of recycling an old measure that he vetoed a year ago. Under the bill, "American taxpayers would for the first time in our history be compelled to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos. Crossing that line would be a grave mistake," he said in a statement issued in Germany, site of a summit of world leaders.
The bill drew the support of 210 House Democrats and 37 Republicans. Despite the bipartisanship, the total was 35 votes fewer than needed to override a veto.
The Senate cleared the bill several weeks ago by a margin that was one vote short of the two-thirds needed to overcome Bush's objections.
There was no suspense about the outcome in the House, although personal experience punctuated Thursday's hour-long debate to an unusual degree.
Rep. Diana DeGette , D-Colo., the bill's chief Democratic supporter, spoke of her daughter's struggle with juvenile diabetes. "As you can imagine, I am anxious about the idea of my child having to manage such a serious condition all by herself" once she goes to college, she said. "I share this anxiety with many parents of affected children."
Moments later Rep. James Langevin , D-R.I., paralyzed since a gun accident severed his spinal cord several years ago, addressed the House from his motorized wheelchair. An opponent of abortion, Langevin said, "My education on this issue has filled me with tremendous hope, not only that stem cell research might one day lead to a cure for spinal cord injuries, but that one day ... families will no longer watch in agony as a loved one with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's gradually declines."
Opponents of the measure said they, too, support medical research, but insisted that the use of embryonic stem cells was the wrong approach on moral grounds — and possibly not even the most promising one scientifically.
"You're talking about spare embryos now, but if it ever did work ... it would require the killing of millions of embryos," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.
He said a recent report by the U.S. Catholic Conference listed numerous breakthroughs involving medical research conducted with adult stem cells, umbilical cord blood and amniotic fluid, none of which involve the destruction of a human embryo.
Several opponents of the measure also cited a day-old report from scientists who said they had succeeded in turning ordinary skin cells from mice into an embryonic state.
Whatever the scientific implications, the political subtext was clear.
The stem cell legislation was one of six bills that Pelosi placed at the top of her agenda when Congress convened, and she chose to preside when the measure passed. So far, the only other measure among the six to make it to the White House was a minimum wage increase.
According to the National Institutes of Health Web site, scientists were first able to conduct research with embryonic stem cells in 1998.
There were no federal funds for the work until Bush announced on Aug. 9, 2001, that his administration would make it available for lines of cells that already were in existence.
Elected with the strong support of abortion foes and other conservatives, he said at the time his decision was designed to balance concerns about "protecting life and improving life."
He also limited the funds to cell lines derived from embryos that were surplus at fertility clinics, and that had been donated from adults who had given informed consent.
Advocates of the veto-threatened legislation argue that the number of stem cell lines available for research is smaller than needed, and that some of the material has become contaminated over time by mouse embryonic skin cells that typically are placed at the bottom of culture dishes used in the research.
The bill would permit funding for research on embryonic stem cells regardless of the date of their creation, as long as they were donated from in-vitro fertilization clinics, they would "otherwise be discarded" and donors gave their approval.
"No stem cell would ever be taken from an embryo that was not destined to be destroyed in any event," said Rep. Mike Castle, a Delaware Republican who has long bucked his party leaders to support the measure.
Report Accidental deaths on the rise
Thu, 07 Jun 2007 06:08:41 GMT
By CARLA K. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO - The nation's accidental death rate has been gradually creeping higher and is up 12 percent compared to the lowest rate on record, in 1992, according to a report released Thursday by the National Safety Council.
The independent, nonprofit group warned that if the trend continues, the nation could surpass the all-time high of 116,385 accidental deaths, set in 1969.
From 1969 until 1992, the rate of accidental deaths — a number adjusted for population growth — steadily declined. The council credited seat belts and air bags in vehicles, smoke detectors in homes and stiff drunken driving laws with reducing deaths.
But ground is being lost because of increasing rates of falls among the elderly and accidental overdoses from legal and illegal drugs, said Alan McMillan, CEO of the National Safety Council. Meanwhile, deaths from workplace accidents and car crashes have been fairly stable.
Older motorcycle operators also add to the death toll, McMillan said. Thirty-five percent of motorcycle deaths in 2005 were among bikers age 45 and older. A decade earlier, 15 percent of biker deaths were among the older age group. Motorcycle deaths in 2005 totaled 4,232, more than double the number in 1995.
The rate of deaths from falls for people 65 and older rose 31 percent from 1999 to 2003, the council reported, which means that deaths from falls are increasing faster than the older population is increasing. A death within one year after a fall can be attributed to the fall.
"We tend to see our home as our safe haven. The data tell us it's not," McMillan said, adding that families can take steps to protect the elderly from falls by removing hazards and installing stair rails and grab bars.
Deaths from falls climbed from 16,257 in 2002 to 17,229 in 2003, the most recent year for which data are available. The rate also went up, from 5.6 deaths to 5.9 deaths per 100,000 people.
Accidental poisoning deaths, mostly caused by medication or illegal drug overdoses, increased from 17,550 in 2002 to 19,457 in 2003. The rate climbed from 6.4 to 6.7 deaths per 100,000 people.
There were 113,000 accidental deaths in 2005, a 1 percent increase from the previous year, according to council estimates based on federal and state data.
Final 2005 numbers haven't been released by the U.S. government yet, and the council used state data to reach its estimates for 2005. The death rate remained at 38.1 per 100,000 population because the population also increased.
Motor vehicle crashes, the leading cause of accidental deaths, are up only slightly from 2004 to 2005, according to council estimates.
Massachusetts had the lowest accidental death rate at 20.6 deaths per 100,000 people, and New Mexico had the highest accidental death rate at 65.5 deaths per 100,000 people.
For younger people, dying in a car crash was the most frequent cause of accidental death; poisonings topped or tied car crashes among people in their 40s and falls were the leading cause of accidental deaths among the elderly.
Accidents are the fifth leading cause of death behind heart disease, cancer, stroke and respiratory disease, the council said. But for people ages 1 to 44, accidents are the top killer.
The nonprofit group, based in the Chicago suburb of Itasca, estimates accidental deaths and injuries cost the nation $625.5 billion in 2005, including wage and productivity losses, medical expenses and motor vehicle damage.
The National Safety Council has tracked unintentional injuries and deaths since the 1920s and publishes the Journal of Safety Research, an international, peer-reviewed journal, five times a year.
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On the Net:
National Safety Council: http://www.nsc.org/
Court grants asylum over forced abortion
Thu, 07 Jun 2007 03:43:04 GMT
By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that women who are forced to abort their pregnancies by governments such as China's can be awarded asylum in the United States.
Courts previously have allowed victims of forced sterilization to seek asylum here. On Wednesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the same protection should be given to victims of forced abortions and their spouses.
"Both forms of persecution have serious, ongoing effects," the three-judge panel wrote in its unanimous decision. "We see no way to distinguish between the victims of forced sterilization and the victims of forced abortion for withholding of removal eligibility purposes."
The San Francisco-based court made that determination when it ruled that Zi Zhi Tang can remain in the United States because the court found that Chinese officials forced his wife to undergo an abortion in 1980 because the couple wasn't married.
In 1991, Tang's employer, a Chinese construction company, sent him to Guam to work on a project. U.S. immigration officials notified him in 2002 that his worker's visa had expired and he had to leave the country.
Instead, Tang appealed that he and his wife suffered persecution in China because of the abortion she said was forced on her. An immigration judge ordered the couple deported after finding that her abortion wasn't forced because she didn't try to go into hiding after receiving notice from Chinese officials to undergo the procedure.
The appeals court overturned that decision and found that an official order to undergo an abortion constitutes force.
Tang's attorney in Guam and a lawyer for the
Department of Justice, which argued for Tang's deportation, didn't immediately return telephone calls for comment.
China's family planning policy — implemented in the late 1970s — limits most urban couples to one child and families in some rural areas to two to control population growth and conserve natural resources.
Human rights activists complain the policy has led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio due to a traditional preference for male heirs, which has prompted countless families to abort female fetuses in hopes of getting boys.
1600 rollershoe injuries reported
Thu, 07 Jun 2007 03:10:43 GMT
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer
CHICAGO - Injuries from trendy roller shoes are far more numerous than previously thought, contributing to about 1,600 emergency room visits last year, the U.S.
http://www.cpsc.gov
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons: http://www.aaos.org
Heelys Inc.: http://www.heelys.com