Actor Fox brings stem-cell issue into Senate race
2006-11-01
Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer
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rss feedActor Michael J. Fox, who became famous playing a conservative Republican from Columbus on the 1980s television sitcom "Family Ties," made a homecoming of sorts Monday to show his support for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown - and to plop the issue of embryonic stem cell research into the race.
Brown has not pushed the issue as he tries to oust two-term Republican Sen. Mike DeWine. To DeWine, research on stem cells from embryos involves destroying human life.
By appearing at Ohio State University alongside Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, Brown highlighted one more of his many differences with DeWine. Brown, a seven-term congressman, backs government-supported embryonic stem cell research because he believes it could lead to a cure for Parkinson's and other diseases.
Fox said he is "supporting candidates who support all forms of stem cell research in races where their opponents don't." That includes Democrats in several other states.
The Bush administration announced in August 2001 that taxpayer money could no longer be used to research new embryonic stem cell lines. Even Republicans are split on the issue, with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a surgeon, in 2005 reversing his earlier opposition to expanded stem cell research.
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