Stem-cell bill shakes up Beacon Hill

[paineinthearse]

http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/stembill17.htm

Stem-cell bill shakes up Beacon Hill

By STEVE LeBLANC
Associated Press Writer

BOSTON - Advocates on both sides of the stem-cell research debate packed a Statehouse hearing yesterday, wrangling over thorny ethical questions about when life begins and what constitutes a human embryo.
Senate President Robert Travaglini, prime sponsor of a bill to encourage stem-cell research in Massachusetts, said the research could help scientists seek cures for a host of life-threatening illnesses. But opponents said the bill would open the door to human experimentation by allowing scientists and corporations to create human life in order to destroy it in the name of medicine.

"Embryonic stem cells can only be obtained by destroying the human embryo," said Maria Parker, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, told the Legislature's Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies. "The human embryo, however it is created, is an actual, real human being."

Gov. Mitt Romney last week escalated the debate, saying he opposes the creation and destruction of new embryos. The Republican governor supports embryonic stem-cell research if it involves the use of frozen embryos that would otherwise be destroyed by fertility clinics. He did not attend yesterday's hearing.


Bill bans cloning

Travaglini said his bill would ban human cloning and guarantees that embryos and other genetic materials cannot be used without the consent of donors. He said the bill allows scientists to create groups of cells for research, but those are not fertilized eggs.
"Today, children with juvenile diabetes or crippling spinal cord injuries hope that stem-cell research may someday offer them a cure," said Travaglini, D-Boston. "We cannot let their hope be taken hostage by ignorance, misinformation or political posturing." The hearing drew hundreds to the Statehouse.

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(Published: February 17, 2005)

[TaleWgnDg]

1. paineinthearse, again thanks for the topic . . . however

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paineinthearse, again thanks for the topic . . . however, that's an AP article in the Cape Cod times online. AP isn't the best for clear, concise and understandable reporting.

For example, when AP/Cape Cod Times online states that Senate President Robert E. Travaglini's "bill would ban human cloning" that's an ambiguous way to state that Travaglini and the other sponsors and co-sponsors of the Senate bill are against human reproductive cloning which is accomplished by implantation of a cloned (fertilized) human egg into a surrogate mother to cause a birth of a cloned human being.

Travaglini's Senate Bill #25 is expressly against such human reproductive cloning.

However, the Travaglini's bill does allow Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) (therapeutic cloning) which is the cloning of a human egg in vitro (outside the human body) and development of that fertilized human egg in vitro (outside the human body) for 5-6 days into a blastocyst (a mass of stem cells approximately no larger than a head of a pin) to be used for medical research.

Thus, Senate Bill #25 as filed is against human reproductive cloning and is for human therapeutic cloning.

The Boston Globe did an article on this same matter the other day, it's posted here in this DU thread . . . http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=158x3103

Hopefully, Travaglini's bill will pass both Houses with enough clout to indicate an over-ride of any religion-into-law veto that Governor Mitt Romney is sure to pen as he dances and wiggles his way to the White House (he hopes) using us Bay Staters as stepping-stones! But that's a whole "nutter" issue!

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