Bush's bind on stem-cell research

There was a moment, a brief moment, when President Bush seemed to have a chance of reaching an understanding with Pope John Paul II permitting a compromise on the funding of embryonic stem-cell research.

It is no secret that the president is in a painful dilemma, committed to opposing research using embryos, yet under enormous pressure, even from many opponents of abortion, to open the way for science to seek cures for diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Scientists have been able to retrieve stem cells for experimentation from adults. But the National Institutes of Health says that cells from unused human embryos may be more versatile. And that is the crux of the deadlock.

Sen. Bill Frist, a transplant surgeon, has been advising the White House on this issue. After long study, he came up with a 10-point plan that would endorse embryo stem-cell research within careful ethical and scientific limits. This, just as President Bush was on his way to a meeting with the pope. A Vatican encyclical in 1995 called any use of living human embryos "absolutely unacceptable." The question was whether, in light of growing support for research among Roman Catholics as well as others, there could be any give in the Vatican's position.

In their meeting last week, Mr. Bush didn't raise the question. The Pope did. He read a statement that contained an interesting ambiguity. He condemned proposals "for the creation for research purposes of human embryos destined to destruction in the process." Creation "for research purposes"? Does that mean that if they were not created for research, but left over from fertilization procedures and about to be discarded, that the church would relent?

That's what some in the White House thought, and they were excited about the possibility that a compromise might be found along lines suggested by Senator Frist. Then came the morning after. The Vatican issued a statement of clarification, referring to the 1995 encyclical, saying it was resolutely opposed to any use of embryos, regardless of how or why created.

What internal struggle had led to the opening and then closing of a loophole in the Vatican's position we may never know. But meanwhile, President Bush is back to his painful dilemma between the all-out antiabortionists and the Nancy Reagans, looking for hope from science.

That enigma has now become more complicated by the related issue of human cloning. The House voted Tuesday to ban human cloning, not only for reproduction, but also for medical research. Bush commended the action, which, he said, "honors and respects life."

The sponsor of the bill, Florida Republican Dave Weldon, took his victory as a signal of wider disapproval of "manufacture of scientific embryos for research." That tightens the vise around the president's decision.

Daniel Schorr is a senior news analyst for National Public Radio.