MedCity morning read, Monday, March 9

By Annie Cavanagh and Dave McCarthy, courtesy of Wellcome Science

President Obama is expected today to lift the Bush administration ban on using federal dollars to pay for human embryonic stem cell research.

However, the new president may stop short of going to the heart of the embryonic stem cell debate — deciding whether taxpayer dollars should be used to experiment on embryos themselves, not just on the stem cells they produce, according to the New York Times.

The Times quotes two senior Obama administration officials who said Obama would leave it to Congress to lift – or not to lift — its longstanding legislative ban on using federal money for human embryo experiments.

Human embryos are destroyed — some say, killed — when scientists harvest their stem cells, which are progenitor cells that can develop into myriad tissue types, such as muscle or blood vessel. Others consider human embryos a mass of cells and not living human beings.

People on both sides of the stem cell debate appear to agree that Obama’s announcement could lead to reconsideration of the ban on Capitol Hill — an idea so controversial and fraught with ethical implications that the mere discussion of it would have been unthinkable under the Bush administration, the Times said.

On Sunday, U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, the Republican whip in the House of Representatives, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the stem cell debate is distracting the Obama administration from the real issue: the dire straits of the nation’s economy.

CNN characterized today’s expected announcement by Obama a part of a broader effort to separate science from politics and to restore scientific integrity in government decision-making.

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that the lift on federal financing of embryonic stem cell research could re-energize U.S. researchers (paid registration required) and bring tens of millions of dollars to university laboratories.

Researchers caution that it will take years to figure out whether embryonic stem cells can be marshaled to treat disease, the Journal said.

More stories worth a read:

• Merck to buy Schering-Plough for $41.1 billion (New York Times)
• Protecting assets: Hospitals, systems move out of stocks (Modern Healthcare)
• In divide over health care overhaul, 2 major unions withdraw from a coalition (New York Times)
• Health sector has donated millions to lawmakers (Washington Post)
• Johns Hopkins University eyeing ban on drug industry’s free pens, food and fun (Baltimore Business Journal)
• U.S. healthcare system pinched by nursing shortage (Reuters)
• Some say stimulus boosts government role in health decisions (American Medical Association)
• U.H. Case Medical Center requires fingerprints to come into contact with patients (Plain Dealer)