Bill to criminalize embryonic stem cell research passes through House, Senate committees
Friday, March 18, 2011 at 9:36 am
- 15 Comments
Committees in both the Minnesota Senate and House passed a bill this week that would criminalize the somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) process in embryonic stem cell research as well as prohibit the products of that research from entering the state of Minnesota. Despite expert testimony that the bill would hamper medical research in Minnesota, it passed three key committees this week.
The Senate’s Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety heard the bill on Thursday.
John Wagner, professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota and the Stem Cell Institute, said the bill would harm research at the university. He also implied that the bill’s title, The Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2011, was misleading.
There are two kinds of uses for SCNT, he told the committee: one is to create a living, breathing human clone, also called “reproductive cloning,” and another is to use SCNT for “therapeutic cloning” to create stem cell treatments for treating disease. Wagner said that no one is trying to create whole human beings with the reproductive cloning, but many researchers are using SCNT to create stem cells for medical purposes.
“Human cloning should be prohibited. Everyone is in complete agreement with that,” Wagner told the committee. “However, there is language in here that could be construed that this is also prohibiting embryonic stem cell research. And that’s the part that I think we need to make very clear.”
Sen. John Marty (DFL-Roseville) asked Fischbach if she would approve an amendment to protect the medical research uses of SCNT. “I’m willing to work on an amendment to try and limit it to banning reproductive cloning and to protect stem cell cloning,” he said. “If that’s not the intent I’d just be wasting time.”
“The intent off the bill is to ban human cloning,” Fishbach responded. “I think what the doctor was describing in very scientific terms was either you clone a human to make a baby and implant it into a women or you clone a baby to use it in experiments”
She added, “I think what we are trying to do here is to prevent a human from being created for experiments and reproduction.”
Dr. Wagner indicated that that was not quite accurate. “None of us are creating a baby. Once you insert a nucleus in to that oocyte you get an embryo,” he said. “The intent is not to create a baby, the intent is to create an embryo. I think it comes down to what you think an embryo is. We are talking about eight cells here.”
Wagner added that the University of Minnesota currently does not use the SCNT technique and does not create new embryos; instead researchers use embryonic stem cell lines created in different states and countries. He said there was concern, however, that the bill would ban the importation of cells and products created by SCNT in Minnesota and that it would impact the university’s research.
But according to testimony by Andrea Rau of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, much of the bill may not matter because the type of research the group is trying to ban is already illegal.
“It is already not allowed under Minnesota law,” said Rau, citing laws related to “human conceptus.”
“If it’s already unlawful then I don’t see why we need this legislation,” Marty said. “Then this is not to stop a cloned human being, this is to stop research into cures for Parkinsons, ALS and other diseases.”
The University of Minnesota provided legislators with a fact sheet that calls the bill a “law to make stem cell research a crime.” The university also created a website to oppose the bill.
Its author, Sen. Michelle Fischbach, said the penalties for such research under the bill have been reduced from a felony charge to a misdemeanor. Fischbach is the wife of Scott Fischbach, the executive director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, a group that is working to draft and pass the bill.
The bill passed the committee by a 8-5 vote on Thursday. And on Tuesday, the bill passed the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. The House Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety passed it by a voice vote on Tuesday as well.
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Comment posted March 18, 2011 @ 10:10 am
Religious zealotry is not a stable foundation for any society. Religious fundamentalists should not be determining the boundaries of biomedical ethics for the state or nation. How arrogant!
It’s also ironic that this job killing, anti-biomedical business legislation is supported by the party that promised to turn the economy around. Where are the jobs, GOP? Or will you be expanding government by hiring enforcers?
Praise Jebus, God hates a healthy economy, Amen.
Comment posted March 18, 2011 @ 10:24 am
Wouldn’t this bill also close any Fertility Clinics or other assisted pregnancy medical procedures? Are these people sure of what the unintended consequences are or do they care? This is a foolish move.
Pingback posted March 18, 2011 @ 3:41 pm
[...] 18th, 2011 The Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2011 is passed in Minnesota. There are two kinds of uses for SCNT, he told the committee: one is to [...]
Comment posted March 18, 2011 @ 5:55 pm
It is especially disappointing when you suffer from a disease like Parkinson’s that steals your l ife with no hope of cure.. or even better treatment.
Comment posted March 19, 2011 @ 5:47 am
Human beings in any form or stage in development should point blank be disregarded as a tool for medical or scientific research. There are alternatives, perhaps not fully developed or even discovered yet but once we agree on the sanctity of human life we can concentrate all our combined efforts on speedily and ethically bringing these viable alternatives to market.
Once that sperm and egg do meet, don’t be messing with that zygeete.
Comment posted March 19, 2011 @ 11:01 am
Well anyone with these diseases in Minnesota I guess you don’t count…nice job Minnesota….!!!
New Article In Regenerative Medicine Explains the Potential of Stem Cell Therapies for ALS and SMA.
Biology Behind Therapeutic Use of Stem Cells in Motor Neuron Disease
Trophic support by grafted cells through the production of growth factors may also provide first aid to diseased motor neuron. Many growth factors have very potent neuroprotective properties and may enrich the microenvironment of the spinal cord. Each individual stem cell line will have an unique signature with respect to its secretion profile and its terminal differentiation capabilities.
Evidence of Stem Cell Efficacy for SMA
Stem cells have recently been examined for their potential for the treatment of SMA (Table 1). Mouse ES cell-derived Naps were examined in mice for efficacy on SMA disease progression]. ES cells, which were predifferentiated into NPCs and motor neuron progenitors, incorporated into the ventral horn of SMN2tg/Smn-/-/SMNΔ7+/+ SMA mice after intrathecal injection. The integrated NPCs produced an array of growth factors including GDNF, BDNF, TGF-α and neurotrophin-3. Engrafted animals demonstrated a 39% increase in lifespan which coincided with improved body weight and grip strength, decreased motor neuron and muscle loss and maintained neuromuscular contacts. Given the short time the stem cells have to integrate and mature in the spinal cord, it is somewhat surprising they had such a dramatic effect. These promising results bode well for the extrapolation of stem cell therapies to larger animals and eventually humans.
http://www.fsma.org/Research/News/index.cfm?ID=5955&TYPE=1158
Pingback posted March 19, 2011 @ 2:43 pm
[...] …Minnesota Moves Ahead with Prohibition on Human CloningFamily Research Council (blog)Bill to criminalize embryonic stem cell research passes through House, Senate …Minnesota Independentall 5 news articles »Get more results from Google news Posted in: [...]
Comment posted March 20, 2011 @ 9:11 am
This exact same ridiculous process occurred in Iowa. They banned all forms of human cloning and then everyone, including administrators at the U of Iowa, considered that to be a ban on human embryonic stem cell research. This, despite the fact that NO hES CELL LINE HAS EVER BEEN CREATED FROM CLONING. This is because of another simple fact. That is, HUMAN CLONING HAS NEVER BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.
In other words, this debate is over a non-existent technology. Go ahead and ban it if you wish, but until it is accomplished elsewhere, probably in China, the ban is irrelevant. Once it is accomplished, it will lead to tremendous therapies only AFTER we figure out how to better use existing hES cell lines for creating new tissues. Cloned ES cells only matter after that is accomplished. In the mean time, please don’t interfere with current embryonic stem cell research.
Comment posted March 20, 2011 @ 9:20 am
This like many other bills would take more studying then what it was given. You can’t just read a title of a bill and think you got it all. Such a detailed one at that. Thanks so much for not taking the time to understand. I feel it was like you just pulled the plug on my life as I suffer from a debilitating auto immune disease. I find it odd as well taht a few supporters of this bill pulled the plug on their own lives as well just to stay in chime with their party. Completely partisan this year I see. Years of research and hard work.. down the tubes.. literalllyl
Pingback posted March 20, 2011 @ 12:37 pm
[...] Birkley, A. (2011, March 18). Bill to criminalize embryonic stem cell research passes through House, senate committees. The Minnesota Chronicle. Retrieved from http://minnesotaindependent.com/79013/bill-to-criminalize-embryonic-stem-cell-research-passes-throug... [...]
Comment posted March 22, 2011 @ 5:36 am
Pro-life as in continue to allow people is debilitating diseases to suffer on and live in misery? Is that pro-life? If your so called god exists that gives humans a ‘soul’, then I hope that god burns in hell himself because one thing for sure is he’s causing a lot of pain and miserableness on this earth.
I hope china takes over us in stem cell research and us falls behind. I’m very disappointed.
Comment posted March 24, 2011 @ 7:31 am
Hey, ya’all. Let’s go burn us a witch. We’ll hunt ‘em out, burn ‘em all. You can tell ‘em by their adult stem cell numbers. It’ll make Minnesota a better land, a beacon of good judgment, all sunshine and less snow.
They’ll start witch burnings everywhere, once they’ve see Minnesota.
It will not be just an innovation, it’ll be a movement.
Next on the list …
Comment posted March 29, 2011 @ 4:01 pm
Really bad news for Minnesota.
As Legislators in the USA race to find ways to block all kind of stem cell research the rest of the World is embracing it. China just approved Advanced Cell Technology a patent regarding stem cells rights in their country. They will compete and probably be the leader country when it comes to Stem Cell research and development bringing billions of funds to their economies leaving the USA in the dust.
Who are these politicians anyways? What gives them the right to interfered in science that will cure billions of people of horrible diseases? How can they sleep at night?
Geron is conducting Human trials as we speak and Advanced Cell Technology will begin human trials as well by May. The flood gates will be open and when they achieve success many legislators will be out of their jobs.
Comment posted November 3, 2011 @ 1:40 am
WARNING ! STOLEN BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL ! Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2007! regarding Scarlett Johansson “actress”
Hello dear Lades and Gentlemen!
I would like inform you that Scarlett Johansson “actress” (as much as Vanessa Johansson) actually is a clone from original person Scarlett Galabekian last name, who has nothing with acting career, surname Galabekian, because of adoption happened in 1992. Clones was created illegally by using stolen biological material. Original person is very nice (not d**n sexy), most important – CHRISTIAN young lady! I’ll tell you more, those clones (it’s not only one) made in GERMANY – world leader manufacturer of humans clones, it is in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Mr. Helmut Kohl home town. You can not even imaging the scale of the cloning activity. But warning! Helmut Kohl clone staff strictly controlling all their clones spreading around the world, they are very accurate with that, some of them are still NAZI type disciplined and mind controlled clones, so be careful get close with clones you will be controlled as well. Whatever is stolen will be always stolen and it’s illegal to possess, to use or dispose. Think wise… This is just a warning, because original person is not happy with those movies, images, video, rumors and etc. spreading on media in that way it would be really nice if we all try slow down that ”actress” career development, original Scarlett will really appreciated that. Please remember that original Scarlett’s family did not authorize any activity with stolen biological materials. Please do that, do not wait until FBI agent give you a call with questions. All clones needs to be return back to original family control to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Original Scarlett never was engaged, by the way!
Her family member Serge G.
P.S. CONTROLLING ACTIVITY OF ANY CLONES IS US MILITARY OPERATION.
Check also here: http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/2008/10/warning_stolen_biological_mate.html
H.R. 534, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003, was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives on February 5, 2003. After discussion, it was passed on February 27 by a vote of 241-155. It now moves on to the Senate for consideration. This bill makes it unlawful for any person or entity to perform or participate in human cloning, or to ship or receive embryos produced by human cloning. The penalties are imprisonment of up to 10 years and fines of $1 million or more.
These now join other nations as diverse as Norway, Australia, and Germany, which had already added cloning for any purpose to their criminal code. And in Germany where it carries a penalty of five years imprisonment they know a thing or two about unethical science.
Also: http://forums.computerandvideogames.com/viewtopic.php?t=121463
Hey guys! I want to say that Scarlett Johansson is [b]stolen [/b]biological material, taken against will and formed to clones line 200 pieces total. Sign of dangerous criminal activity. Original Scarlett Galabekian future pediatrician doctor, pediatrician nurse license she obtained in 2008.
OK guys! The latest bio tech news.
Because of stolen status of clones Scarlett’s original family resistance there was never installed female reproductive organs, never was installed fully functional digested system (food can go inside, but not outside, of course special food, 100% consumable), no hair on the body, all glued, some body parts substituted by silicone implants, some as I said v-nas never was installed at all also never was installed memory functionality in clones brain. S. Johansson actress CAN NOT BE PREGNANT. S. J. clones activity is a result of remoter activity, each and every move, word, blink of the eyes of S. clones is a result of somebody’s will, that somebody usually Serge Galabekian not original, who is also stolen biological material. Scarlett’s original parents are great, unique doctors, especially Karsten Galabekian, that is right last name Galabekian. Sure name was changed because of big disappointments with Scarlett Johansson “actress” rumors and gossips est. Original Scarlett’s family has strict Christian tradition that conflicting with S. J. “life stile”, philosophy. In fact there none originals left with Johansson last name in regards of S. J. actress. They turn to Galabekian last name, as mush as their daughter’s adopted last name.
Without remoter S.J. actress required life support chamber, brain can’t control respiratory or blood circulation system functionality
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