Coburn will filibuster stem cell bill

[Chicken Little]

from The Hill

Frist is in the midst of negotiations with the bill's supporters and appears to be close to reaching a deal that would bring the measure to the floor in July under a unanimous-consent agreement barring amendments.

But Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a physician who is pro-life and staunchly opposes allowing additional funding of embryonic-stem-cell research, is threatening to filibuster it, among other things.

"He is considering offering several amendments ... [and] an old-fashioned filibuster," his spokesman John Hart said. Coburn might read aloud on the Senate floor "thousands" of accounts of people treated with therapies derived from adult stem-cell research, which he maintains has been proved effective without venturing into ethically touchy areas.