By Kim Coghill

Washington Editor

WASHINGTON - Christian-based nonprofit organizations filed a lawsuit against the federal government Thursday seeking to stop the National Institutes of Health from funding embryonic stem cell research.

Bristol, Tenn.-based Christian Medical Association filed the complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asking the court to "declare unlawful and enjoin certain actions of defendants . . . regarding the publication and application of guidelines for public funding for research involving stem cells derived from human embryos."

Nightlight Christian Adoption, a Fullerton, Calif.-based nonprofit group that encourages people to adopt human embryos stored at fertility clinics, joined the lawsuit, which names Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Ruth Kirschstein, acting director of Bethesda, Md.-based NIH.

But the Christian organizations aren't the only ones pressuring the young Bush administration to stop funding - before it even starts - for embryonic stem cell research. Also last week, the Washington-based Concerned Women for America, representing 550,000 women and men, urged the Bush administration to end the funding.

And during a White House press conference last week, Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer was asked again to expand on the president's stance on stem cell research. His response to questions: "The president has expressed his views on this directly and that's why he's asked HHS to undertake the review. The president is very understanding and respectful of the promises of science, but he's very concerned about any procedure that would involve taking stem cells from fetuses that are viable."

It's that very concern - taking stem cells from fetuses or embryos - that motivates groups such as the Christian Medical Association (CMA), which reportedly has 15,000 members.

Gene Rudd, an OB/GYN and associate executive director of the CMA, said, "The destruction of embryonic stem cells is heartless and unnecessary."

While others would say that embryonic stem cells being studied are "extras" and slated for destruction at fertility clinics anyway, Rudd said, "It is not acceptable to create a life to save someone. We can't seem to draw the line on when life begins, so we have to accept that the embryos have value and are life."

He contends that scientists can gain the same results through the research of adult stem cells, which his organization considers ethical.

Some scientists say that although adult stem cells appear to have therapeutic potential, it is not known whether they will prove as useful as embryonic or fetal cells.

Aside from the ethical issue, Rudd said it is illegal for the federal government to pay for such research. He cited the guidelines approved by the NIH last fall. The rules prohibit derivation of human pluripotent stem cells, but allow funding for research that uses the cells after they have been collected. (See BioWorld Today, Aug. 24, 2000.)

Rudd interprets that to mean that the research is illegal, and the Bush team hasn't really decided what the rules mean.

In fact, at a press conference last week in Bethesda, Md., Thompson described the administration's position as "murky" because one interpretation of the law says that if stem cells are destroyed independently, then research can continue. (See BioWorld Today, March 1, 2001.)

Thompson said Bush will review the legality of the funding during the next several months before deciding whether it can continue. The NIH deadline for research funding is Thursday.

Greenpeace Says StarLink Surfaces Again

Environmental group Greenpeace filed a notice with the FDA requesting that the agency order an immediate recall and health investigation of Kellogg's Morningstar Farms brand meatless corn dogs because, it said, traces of StarLink corn were found in the product.

StarLink corn was not approved for human consumption because the EPA could not rule out the possibility that it could cause allergies. Aventis CropScience said in October that Cry9C protein, the element of regulatory attention found in StarLink, meets the Food Quality Protection Act's reasonable certainty of no harm standard. StarLink corn is approved for use in domestic animal feed and nonfood industrial uses, but found its way into food, most notably taco shells.

According to reports, Kellogg's has sent the corn dogs for testing but has not decided whether to recall them. n