Ohio Moves Toward Banning hESC Research
The Ohio Senate yesterday passed a bill that prohibits the state from funding embryonic stem cell research. Lines already approved by the federal government are exempt from the ban. According to
Crain’s Cleveland Business, the bill passed mostly along party lines (21-11). The bill now moves to the Ohio House, where a similar bill was withdrawn because it did not appear to have the votes needed to pass. It criminalized human cloning.
The
Toledo Blade quoted the Senate minority leader, Democrat C.J. Prentiss, as saying, “An investment that protects life is an investment that embraces research and allows us to protect that life.” Prentiss’s mother has Alzheimer’s Disease. The Blade also quoted Democrat Eric Fingerhut, who is Jewish, as saying,
The same God that created that embryo … created the miracle of its ability to differentiate and to create cures. That same God also created scientists who have vision and have the ability to see things that have never been seen. That's not some brain cell. That's a soul. That's a God-given talent.
The
Akron Beacon Journal ran an AP wire story reporting that the bill bans human cloning but allows limited therapeutic cloning, such as to make skin for burn victims. However, according to the story, the language of the bill defines “embryo” in such a way as to actually prohibit even the limited therapeutic cloning. The story quoted an Ohio State University researcher, who said that the “ball of cells” that could be considered an embryo might never become viable. According to the story, 2/3 of the embryos of that stage that develop naturally also dies on their own.
The full text of the bill follows:
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That section 131.51 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:
Sec. 131.51. (A) As used in this section, "human cloning" means human asexual reproduction that is accomplished by introducing nuclear material from one or more human somatic cells into a fertilized or unfertilized oocyte whose nuclear material has been removed or inactivated so as to produce a living organism, at any stage of development, that is genetically virtually identical to an existing or previously existing human organism.
(B) Money in the state treasury and money in the custody of the treasurer of state shall not be used, directly or indirectly, to pay costs of or otherwise support any activities involving either of the following:
(1) Stem cell research with human embryonic tissue unless the stem cell research involves embryonic stem cells listed on the "Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry" created by the national institutes of health in the United States department of health and human services in accordance with presidential criteria established on August 9, 2001, or unless the stem cell research involves embryonic stem cells derived in a manner that does not destroy the embryo;
(2) Human cloning.
(C) Nothing in division (B)(2) of this section shall restrict the use of such money with regard to areas of scientific research that do not involve the creation or use of an embryo produced by human cloning or any product derived from an embryo produced by human cloning. Areas of research with regard to which the use of such money is not restricted by that division include, but are not limited to, the use of nuclear transfer or other cloning techniques to produce molecules, human deoxyribonucleic acid, tissues, organs, plants, animals other than humans, and cells other than human embryos.***
The debate seems the same here as it has been in other states, and we will just have to see what happens.
