The Rhode Island Democrat plans to visit the United Kingdom next week to study stem cell research advances.

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, May 25, 2006

BY JOHN E. MULLIGAN
Journal Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Rep. James R. Langevin expressed "a high degree of confidence" that the Senate will soon adopt a version of the stem-cell research subsidy bill that he helped push through the House last year.

Langevin spoke after he and other proponents held a rally on Capitol Hill to call for Senate action on the measure, which President Bush has threatened to veto.

The Rhode Island Democrat also announced plans to visit the United Kingdom next week with other members of Congress, to study advances made in embryonic stem cell research under British government subsidies.

Langevin, who uses a wheelchair since an accidental shooting damaged his spinal cord when he was a teenager, has made a personal cause of stem cell research.

He has cited his story as an embodiment of the hope that many people see in stem cell research for curing their illnesses and injuries.

Langevin also embodies the political delicacy of the issue. He supports research using stem cells from human embryos created for in vitro fertilization but never actually implanted in a woman's womb. Those frozen embryos, Langevin and others argue, would otherwise be discarded and can ethically be used to seek cures for a host of illnesses and injuries.

But opponents of embryonic stem cell research argue that it is wrong to destroy human embryos.

Langevin made his position public in August 2001, shortly after President Bush announced his opposition to a blanket federal endorsement of human embryonic stem cell research. But Mr. Bush did approve the use of federal funds for research on stem cells derived from embryos that had already been destroyed by that time. The president also approved federal research on stem cells derived from adults without causing them any harm.

Critics, including Langevin, deemed the Bush policy too restrictive and, last year, succeeded in getting the House to pass legislation authorizing broad federal support of embryonic stem cell research.

If the Senate does pass a comparable bill, Langevin said he will work to dissuade Mr. Bush from vetoing it.

Meanwhile, Langevin pronounced himself "thrilled" at the chance to travel to the United Kingdom to study what he called the "great stem cell innovations" there.

jmulligan@belo-dc.com / (202) 661-8423