Washington – Two weeks after President Bush vetoed their bill advancing embryonic stem- cell research, Rep. Diana DeGette and a Republican congressman asked the world’s richest man for help.
In a letter Thursday, DeGette, D-Colo., and Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., appealed to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create a grant program funding embryonic stem-cell research. The foundation, established by the Microsoft Corp. founder and his wife, supports global health initiatives.
“It seems to fit within the guiding principle of your foundation – every life has equal value,” the letter said. “This research has the potential to unlock cures and treatments for many devastating diseases affecting hundreds of millions of patients around the world.”
The foundation Thursday did not accept or reject the request directly but issued a statement about its health care priorities, saying it “focuses on diseases that disproportionately affect people in developing countries.”
Bush last month issued the first veto of his presidency, rejecting legislation sponsored by DeGette and Castle and approved by Congress that would have ramped up federal funding for research on embryonic stem cells. The veto preserved funding curbs imposed by Bush in 2001.
Anti-abortion and social conservative groups, including Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, oppose the research because it requires destruction of human embryos.
“For the time being, President Bush’s veto has taken the federal government out of the equation of stem-cell research,” DeGette said Thursday. “That is why we have asked the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to apply some of their considerable resources to fill in the gap.”
