Three UNMC officials testified last week against two legislative bills that would have restricted embryonic stem cell research in Nebraska.
Thomas Rosenquist, Ph.D., vice chancellor for research at UNMC, David Crouse, Ph.D., associate dean for academic affairs, and Pierre Fayad, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Neurological Sciences, testified in opposition to Legislative Bill 437 and Legislative Bill 750 on Thursday before the Legislative’s Judiciary Committee.
Two UNMC graduate students – Robert Arpke and Sarah Keim – also were among those who testified against the bills. Other opponents included an Omaha businessman, a Presbyterian pastor, NU Regent Drew Miller, Ph.D., two people affected by juvenile diabetes and one with Parkinson’s disease, and a research advocate.
The opponents of the bills argued that embryonic stem cell research represents the centerpiece of 21st century scientific discovery, that it provides hope for cure and treatment to countless patients and their families, and that limiting the research would have a chilling effect on Nebraska’s research enterprise. The testifiers argued that the university already has stringent controls on the research, and that it follows current federal guidelines.
“Because of my familiarity with research in the areas of both embryonic and adult stem cells, I know that embryonic stem cell research is uniquely suitable to provide cures for diseases that result from the death of cells that currently are irreplaceable,” Dr. Rosenquist testified. “Because the cells are irreplaceable, the diseases therefore are incurable. Included in the list of such diseases are strokes, spinal injury, neurodegenerative diseases, heart attacks, diabetes, and a host of others.”
Opponents of the research contend that using embryonic stem cells is immoral, as it involves the destruction of human embryos. They contend that other forms of research hold as much promise as embryonic stem cells. ESC research proponents dispute this claim.
A third bill, LB 580, also was debated on Thursday. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Joel Johnson of Kearney, would have banned reproductive cloning but allowed for somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), sometimes called therapeutic cloning. This process involves removing the nucleus of an unfertilized egg cell, replacing it with the material from the nucleus of a “somatic cell” (a skin, heart, or nerve cell, for example), and stimulating this cell to begin dividing.
The committee took no action on the bills, and none of the bills was named a priority bill by an individual senator or the committee.