Kansas Coalition
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| NEWS ARTICLE February 13, 2007 TOPEKA CAPITAL-JOURNAL |
Cloning research debate rages on
By James Carlson
The Capital-Journal
Drew Dimmel's hand tapped out an uncontrolled beat on the lectern, a reminder to him of the consequences of the debate at hand.
Dimmel, who has Parkinson's Disease and is chairman of the Parkinson Foundation of the Heartland, testified Monday before the House Health and Human Services Committee on a bill that would ban state-funded human cloning research.
"What I find objectionable is that the state might discourage medical research that might one day relegate Parkinson's to the historical waste bin, the way the Salk vaccine did with polio," he said.
The bill would prohibit any state agency from spending money to perform or attempt to perform human cloning, often called embryonic stem cell research.
The debate centered on two points: will the research yield results and even if it does, do we want to conduct it?
Duane Simpson, a lobbyist for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, said the state shouldn't stop scientists from finding cures.
"The regenerative nature of human embryonic stem cells makes them ideal for research in numerous areas including spinal cord injury, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, diabetes, heart disease, regeneration of tissues for burn victims as well as promising new research in cancer," he said.
But Nikolas Nikas, president and general counsel for the Bioethics Defense Fund, said he has heard this talk before.
"Supporters like to say there's a medical utopia right around the corner," he said. "It's just not there. Don't we want to invest in research known to produce cures?"
Nikas said adult stem cells such as those found in the umbilical cord and amniotic fluid have produced great results.
Simpson said that is because that type of research has had a 20-year head start on embryonic research.
This bill focuses on somatic cell nuclear transfer.
In that process, researchers replace the nucleus of an unfertilized human egg with the nucleus of another cell, stimulates growth in a lab dish, harvests the resulting embryonic stem cells and destroys what is left. Some researchers say stem cells that form early in an embryo's development can mature into various cells to form organs and other body parts.
Whether or not the process can work, Rep. Lance Kinzer, R-Olathe, said he still doesn't support research on human embryos.
"[An embryo] is valuable because of what it is, not how it can be used," he said.
Simpson said many fear this would lead to human cloning. He said his organization would fully support criminalizing reproductive cloning.
Nikas continually told the committee it didn't matter whether members were for or against the idea of embryonic stem-cell research.
"With something this controversial, we're just asking you not to spend tax-payer's dollars on it," he said.
Currently, there is no such research being conducted in Kansas.