Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Republican who has few fans among conservatives for his support of abortion rights, has taken a fuzzy position.
His spokeswoman Maria Comella said Giuliani thinks "we need to take advantage of new technology, while at the same time need to be respectful of human life." She refused to provide details.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday April 18, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 55 words Type of Material: Correction
Stem cells: An article Thursday in Section A incorrectly attributed a quote to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). In fact, Sen. Gordon H. Smith (R-Ore.) said: "The question we're debating is, when does life begin," as he spoke in support of embryonic research. "Life begins with mom, life begins with the joining of life and spirit."
Mitt Romney, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, supported embryonic stem-cell research before 2005, but now he strikes a balance. He supports research with cells that would otherwise be discarded by fertility clinics, but he opposes federal funding for that work. And like McCain, he opposes the creation of embryos for the purposes of research.
Only Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) opposes almost all embryonic stem-cell research. He led much of the debate on a second stem-cell bill the Senate approved, 70 to 28. Written by conservatives and the White House, it would expand funding for research on dead embryonic cells and other types of stem cells.
The restrictions Bush placed on embryonic stem-cell research limited federal funding to work on stem-cell lines created before August 2001. There are 21 such lines, but advocates say they are contaminated and unusable for research.
The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which came to the floor with 31 bipartisan co-sponsors, would allow funding for embryonic stem-cell research regardless of when the stem cells were created. The stem-cell lines would have to be derived from unwanted and unused embryos donated by in vitro fertilization clinics. Women donating the embryos would have to provide written consent and could not receive a financial reward or other inducement.
The questions of the abortion debate echoed throughout the day as legislators discussed the point at which life begins and control over a woman's body.
Some legislators took to the floor several times to deliver and redeliver their arguments, often with poster-board displays showing levels of research funding in other countries or photos of children who are the product of adopted embryos.
"The question we're debating is, when does life begin?" said Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), as he spoke in support of embryonic research. "Life begins with mom, life begins with the joining of life and spirit."
Brownback asked the same question but came up with a different answer. "Will we sanction the destruction of nascent human life with taxpayer dollars? That is the central question."
