Stem cell debate far from over

By James Patrick Schmidt

Published Feb. 9, 2007

JEFFERSON CITY — Missourians might soon have another chance to decide if stem-cell research should be allowed in the state.

The House of Representatives Health Care Policy Committee held a public hearing on legislation that would put the issue on the ballot in the 2008 general election. The bill would change the definition of human cloning used in the stem-cell amendment that passed this past November.

According to the bill, "'human cloning' means the creation of a human zygote, human blastocyst or human embryo by any means other than the fertilization of a human egg by a human sperm."

Rep. Jim Lembke, R-St. Louis, who sponsored the bill, said it would fill a gap left by the constitutional amendment passed in November.

"The purpose of this bill is to close a gaping loophole left in the constitution," Lembke said. "Amendment 2 did ban reproductive cloning but left the ability for research cloning. This closes that gap."

Despite the fact that Amendment 2 passed, Lembke feels that the discussion was ended prematurely.

"What we saw with the vote on Nov. 7 is that we have over a million voters in the state of Missouri who don't want to see this debate end," he said.

The specific debate relates to the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer and if it is considered human cloning.

Donn Rubin, Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures chairman, said he feels this is not a new issue.

"The crux of (this bill) is that stem-cell opponents want a redo," he said.

Rubin also discussed the importance of not restricting stem-cell research in Missouri because it means that Missourians will not have access to treatments discovered through stem-cell research in other states.

Franz Whippold, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, spoke on behalf on the bill's sponsors and gave a Power Point presentation illustrating the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer and the natural fertilization of a human egg.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer is the process of removing the cell matter of an unfertilized egg and inserting the matter of a somatic or adult cell. Once the new somatic matter is inserted into the cell, it develops with the same genetic makeup of the original adult cell.

The benefit of this process is that stem cells harvested from an egg developed this way are an exact match to the donor, which would eliminate the delay of finding a match.

"SCNT is cloning," Whippold said.

Rubin said he does not deny that somatic cell nuclear transfer is cloning.

"Stem-cell opponents want to confuse cloning stem cells with cloning humans," he said. "SCNT is definitely cloning, but not cloning of a human being."

Steven Teitelbaum, also a professor at Washington University, provided evidence suggesting that somatic cell nuclear transfer is not human cloning.

"In normal reproduction, an egg is fertilized by sperm," he said. "In somatic cell nuclear transfer, there is no sperm involved in the process."

Teitelbaum said there are genes activated in reproduction that are not activated in the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer.

"Blastocysts created by SCNT and sexual reproduction are fundamentally different," he said.

Teitelbaum also said he doesn't think it will be possible to clone a human from cells created through somatic cell nuclear transfer because no one has been able to clone a monkey.