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States take up stem cell debate
May 2011
EDIT CONNECT
SHARING OPTIONS:
ST. PAUL, Minn. and OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.—As a national
debate rages over President Barack Obama's policy to make federal
funds
available for stem cell research—with a handful of contentious lawsuits making
their way through federal courts—states are now taking up the
issue, with two
state legislatures close to passing laws that will make certain human embryonic
stem cell (hESC) research procedures a criminal act.
At press time, the state legislatures of Minnesota and
Oklahoma were both in the process of
passing such legislation, spurred by the
president's 2009 executive order to lift federal funding restrictions on
embryonic stem cell research placed
in August 2001 by former President George
W. Bush. Several federal lawsuits are seeking to not only reverse Obama's OK of
making federal funds
available to those engaged in hESC research, but to ban certain
aspects of this type of research altogether.
Now states are exercising their rights to oppose the federal
policy and take that opposition a step further by making certain
hESC research
procedures a criminal act.
Minnesota's "Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2011" seeks to
ban "human cloning," or somatic cell nuclear
transfer (SCNT). The bill defines
a "somatic cell" as "a diploid cell, having a complete set of chromosomes,
obtained or derived from a living or
deceased human body at any stage of development."
The bill disallows any person or entity—whether public or private—from
performing human cloning and
shipping or receiving any oocyte, embryo, fetus or
human somatic cell for the purpose of human cloning. Any person or entity found
to be in violation
of these provisions would be guilty of a misdemeanor. The
bill exempts other areas of scientific research such as nuclear transfer or
other cloning
techniques to produce non-human molecules, DNA, embryos, tissues
or organs.
The bill was the brainchild
of Republican Sen.
Michelle
Fischbach, who has stated, "There is a life destroyed in cloning. We need to
treat human life at all stages with dignity." But the bill
has come under fire
for failing to distinguish between "therapeutic cloning," which is only used to
generate a few cells, and "reproductive
cloning," which might have the
potential to produce a complete embryo. Opponents of the bill argue that this
technology is currently not being used to
create a human embryo, which would
require implantation into a woman's actual uterus to become a fetus. Senate
Republicans blocked an amendment that
sought to make that distinction.
The bill has passed committee readings in both the state's
House of Representatives and Senate. Once passed, the new law would take effect
Aug. 1 and apply to crimes committed on
or after that date.
In Oklahoma, the "Destructive Human Embryo Research Act" prohibits
a person from
conducting on an embryo research that kills or injures the
embryo. The measure also prohibits buying, selling or transferring an embryo or
gamete for
such research. It excludes certain procedures such as in-vitro fertilization. Like the Minnesota bill, the measure
makes any violation of the act
a misdemeanor.
Opponents of Oklahoma's bill have argued that the bill may
negatively impact the
state's economy. A study released in February 2011 by the
Greater
Oklahoma City Chamber showed that the biosciences contributed $6.7
billion to the economy and generated 51,000 jobs. An amendment allowing for
embryos that are destined to be destroyed to be used in research failed.
The bill, which was
introduced by Rep. George Faught,
R-
Muskogee, passed the House by a vote of 86-8. It's currently going
through
the Oklahoma Senate, and its supporters are hopeful that
it will easily pass
given that Republican Mary Fallin was elected governor of the state in
November.
"We value life here in Oklahoma. And it is for that very
reason that I am happy to run this Americans United for Life request bill
banning the
destructive research on embryonic stem cells," Faught said in a
statement. "While we in no way dispute the fact that the ability to treat or
heal
suffering persons is a great good, we also recognize that not all methods
of achieving a desired good are morally or legally justifiable."
In addition to these two bills, lawmakers in Michigan have
tucked into a higher education funding bill measures
that would require the
state's research universities to report on their stem cell activities.
Specifically, they are asking these institutions to
report how many human
embryos they have and how many stem-cell lines they have created using them.
The spending bill with the provision would
need approval
from the House Appropriations Committee, the full House and then the full
legislature before the governor could sign it into law.
Meanwhile, other states are beefing up their support of hESC
research. Maryland—which ranks third behind
California and New York in state-supported
funding of stem cell research—is working toward increasing the Maryland Stem
Cell Research Fund to $12.4 million from this year's $10.4 million. The plan
also
seeks to retain an $8 million biotechnology investment tax credit.
Last year, Maryland approved 42
stem cell research projects
totaling $11.7 million, including a dozen collaborations between Maryland
universities and companies, according to
Gazette.net. Code: E051129 Back |
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