A Good Day for the Bundestag That Will Not Last
By Dr. Tim Stuchtey

Friday, April 11, 2008, was a good day for the parliamentary culture in Germany. Unlike in the U.S. Congress, the fate of most bills debated in the Bundestag is already decided upon when it reaches the floor. German parliamentarians tend to vote following party lines; a parliamentarian party group decides prior to the debate how they will vote and then all members follow the party group discipline. This way, as a rule of thumb the governing coalition wins every vote and the opposition none. Although the constitution (Article 38) states that every Member of Parliament (MP) is only responsible to his or her own conscience, dissidents from the party group's recommendation are rarely seen. If a MP decides to vote against the party line, he will most often be put under a lot of pressure by his fellow party members and occasionally must fear for his next nomination. Exceptions are votes that deal with deeply ethical issues such as abortion or organ transplants but also decisions about extraterritorial operations of the Bundeswehr. In these cases, MPs are semi-officially released from party lines and can vote for whatever they believe is right.

Embryonic stem cell research is a hot issue in nearly all parts of the world and especially divides those who deeply believe that life starts at conception - and should therefore be protected from this moment on - and those who put more emphasis on healing those who suffer from currently incurable diseases. Until last week it was legal in Germany to do research with embryonic stem cell lines that were imported to Germany before 2002 - a typical compromise (1). While this rule seemed to be satisfactory for German researchers at the time, it strangled them as time passed and left them out of joint international research groups that worked on stem cell lines created after 2001. While it was illegal to work on newer stem cell lines in Germany, at the same time German tax money financed exactly this kind of research through the EU's research programs. Obviously the old compromise could not be retained with this contradiction. Stem cell research became an issue once again in the Bundestag.

After months of public debate, there were four petitions on the floor. None had the backing of a party group but instead were supported by a number of MPs from different parties. One wanted to abolish stem cell research in Germany; one would allow the import of new cell lines and abolish the qualifying date rule; one would keep the old cut-off date; and one would push the cut-off date for the import of embryonic stem cell lines to May 1, 2007. In addition, there was one petition that wanted to clarify that Germans who conduct research on stem cells outside of Germany can do so without fearing punishment back home. Religious groups, in particular the Catholic Church, lobbied heavily for the abolishment, while research organizations such as the German Research Foundation wanted to free the import or at least postpone the cut-off date.

After a very profound exchange of arguments, the votes split across party lines with some very unusual bundling of votes. In the end, the proposal that postponed the cut-off date to May 2007 received 346 votes while 228 voted against it. In a first vote, the complete abolishment of the deadline received only 127 supporting votes. The majority of the FDP voted for the abolishment of the cut-off date and later supported the 2007 cut-off date. The majority of the CDU/CSU did not want to change the deadline, even though Angela Merkel supported that proposal. Nearly all members of the Green Party group and a majority of the members of the Left Party rejected a more recent cut-off date, which received support from many Social Democrats.

In the aftermath of the vote many commentators praised the Bundestag for its good and honest exchange of arguments and the fact that each member had to make up her or his mind how to vote and then actually could do so. Unfortunately this notion and freedom will not remain. Party discipline will be asked for by the party leadership when the Bundestag meets again and the same commentators will hunt down every dissident and call such an act of non-conformity either a rebellion against the party leadership or the beginning of the end of a party leadership team that loses support. Instead, this action is nothing else but the liberty to have an independent opinion and acting according to it.

Footnotes:
1. German researchers are forbidden from using stem cells originating in Germany for research; they must be imported from other countries.

Dr. Tim Stuchtey is Senior Fellow in Residence and director of the Business and Economics program at AICGS.

This essay appeared in the May 2, 2008, AICGS Advisor.