Missouri Blocks Kansas City Research
Related News: Stem Cell NewsThe ethical debate over embryonic stem cells reaches beyond Washington to state capitals and research parks across the country. With competition hot from Maryland to California for cutting-edge research and the profits that could follow, many states are evaluating the overall economic impact of choosing not to fund stem cell research.
As an example, in Maryland advocates have begun a campaign to provide state money for stem cell research. However, a House of Delegates effort to spend $23 million a year on research failed to pass in the Senate earlier this year after a filibuster threat by Republicans and conservative Democrats.
In Missouri, a similar battle is underway involving the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, which has built a $300 million laboratory and populated it with 200 scientists recruited from as far away as China and Argentina.
Conservatives in the Missouri legislature are effectively blocking some of research envisioned by the Stowers staff, saying that research with embryonic stem cells is so immoral it should be a crime.
"I believe that a human embryo is worthy of legal protection," said state Sen. Matt Bartle (R), who vows to press the fight. "Western medicine has been founded on a principle: First, do no harm."
Repeated legislative efforts by Bartle and his colleagues forced the Stowers Institute to curtail recruiting and stop planning for a second 600,000-square-foot facility. At the same time, those efforts have spurred creation of an impromptu statewide alliance of business leaders, liberal science advocates and antiabortion Republicans who favor the research for reasons of health care and job growth.
Posted on August 11, 2005 05:17 PM