South Dakota
Senate Rejects Effort to Undermine Embryonic Stem Cell Ban
The South Dakota
Senate voted down a bill Tuesday that would have sabotaged the state’s
ban on embryonic stem-cell research.
The Senate rejected S.B. 74 by a 21 - 12 margin, after the bill was
substantially revised to permit South Dakotans to access embryonic stem
cell treatments approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The original bill intended to throw out South Dakota’s ban on embryonic
stem cell research and treatments entirely and replace it with a set of
“ethical guidelines” by which research and treatments could be carried
out.
The proposed legal restrictions included a ban on human cloning, but
defined “human cloning” mainly in reproductive terms, leaving some
ambiguity over whether scientists could perform human cloning for
therapeutic purposes.
The bill also forbade the purchase or sale of “human blastocysts or
eggs for stem cell research or stem cell therapies and cures,”
prohibited the creation of human embryos “by fertilization” for the
sole purpose of ESCR, and required documented written informed consent.
However, the penalties for violating the law were criticized for being
exceptionally light, especially considering the millions of dollars
researchers have at their disposal. The bill stated that violators of
the law would be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. In South Dakota, a
Class 1 misdemeanor carries a maximum penalty of “one year imprisonment
in a county jail or two thousand dollars fine, or both.”
The original bill also erroneously defined “stem-cell research” to
apply only to stem-cell research derived from human embryos, to the
exclusion of adult stem-cells or stem-cells derived from umbilical cord
blood. The latter two forms of stem-cell research are considered free
of the ethical problems that dog ESCR, and unlike ESCR have delivered a
host of scientifically proven therapies and cures.
But after enduring blistering testimony on the failure of ESCR to
provide any practical results, especially in comparison to proven
therapies that do not have ESCR’s ethical baggage, the Senate Health
and Human services gutted the bill.
Bob Ellis, a writer for the conservative Dakota Voice explained that
"the original bill had been a direct assault on the ban on ESCR.
However, it became apparent from the damning scientific testimony
before the Health and Human Services Committee against embryonic stem
cell research and for adult stem cell research that the bill was about
to go down in total flames."
"The prime sponsor Senator Ben Nesslhuff then offered to gut the bill
and replace the outright attack on the ban with a much weaker measure
which might serve as a 'foot in the door' to get the results of ESCR
into the state,” he explained.
The amended bill instead read only that “nothing in this chapter
prohibits the use of any Food and Drug Administration approved
treatments derived from or involving human embryonic stem cells."
The committee then approved the bill 4-2 before handing it off to the
South Dakota legislature where it was handily rejected.
The Associated Press reports that former state Treasurer David Volk of
Sioux Falls had suspended a petition drive to put the state ban on the
November ballot for public vote, while the legislature debated the
issue. However, he may now revive those efforts.
But South Dakota appears likely to benefit from steering clear of ESCR,
if the experience of the near-bankrupt State of California offers any
lesson. Back in 2004, California’s government pumped $3 billion into
research at California's Institute for Regenerative Medicine, seeking
some medical use for stem cells harvested from human embryos, which are
killed in the process.
However after years of fruitless work and facing the prospect of total
failure, the Institute has now quietly diverted funds away from ESCR to
adult stem cell research – which has already produced at least 73
documented therapies and cures for maladies ranging from spinal cord
injury, to Alzheimer's, to Type I diabetes.
Contact: Peter J. Smith
Source:
LifeSiteNews.com
Publish
Date:
February 4,
2010
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