Embryonic Stem Cell Research

With the support of Governor Culver, the University of Iowa will be the location of the newly proposed Institute for Biomedical Discovery. Iowans will provide 30 million dollars of public funding for the project. As part of its mission, the Institute will research human embryonic cloning for the purpose of medical experimentation. The goal is the study of a controversial form of embryonic stem cell therapy. The research and the proposed therapy—if successful—will require the creation and routine destruction of early-stage, cloned human embryos.

Background

The “Stem Cell and Cures Initiative,” SF162, was created and passed last session to lift the ban on human cloning research in Iowa. The only form of stem cell research banned in the state of Iowa before the bill’s passage was stem cell research which would require human cloning research.  

Every other form of stem cell research performed nation-wide, including embryonic stem cell research, was legal in Iowa before the bill’s passage. What was not legal was research to create cloned human embryos as a source of stem cells for research.   A stem cell treatment requiring stem cells from an individual’s cloned human embryo exists only in theory, and is, at best, a decade or more in the future. 

Supporters of SF162 maintain that the cloning procedure it now specifically makes legal for human use—SCNT, the cloning procedure used to produce Dolly, the sheep—is not human cloning. Opponents, and the scientific community, deny the logic of such a statement.   Human SCNT research, as defined and allowed by SF162, is performed with the intent of creating viable, early-stage human embryos for experimentation. An early-stage embryo, whether cloned or not, must be created, and exist, before it can produce embryonic stem cells. A human embryo is the exclusive source of human embryonic stem cells, despite the claims of supporters of the SF162.

Governor Culver is proposing the public funding of stem cell research that will use human cloning research made legal by SF162. Please contact his office today, and oppose the funding. Ask why it is necessary to direct limited research dollars to a controversial proposal with such uncertain prospects. There are many stem cell research options which exhibit far more promise and would benefit from public funding—tax dollars should be dedicated to those instead.

PLEASE ACT TODAY. Speak to people you know about the issue and encourage them to contact Governor Culver’s office. Contact your legislators as well.  If the Governor and his supporters continue to maintain SF162 does not allow human cloning for research, ask on what basis such a claim can be made.

The types of study and research performed at the Institute of Biomedical Discovery will be determined during the next legislative session. Please request that public funding of human embryonic cloning research be denied in the state of Iowa.   Ask Governor Culver to promote stem cell research all Iowans can support.

 

 

 

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