State lawmakers today will hear testimony on LB 700, a bill that purports to ban the cloning of humans.
While LB 700 does, in fact, ban human cloning, also known as reproductive cloning, it also bans a technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), or “therapeutic cloning.”
“The purpose of therapeutic cloning is not to generate a new individual, but to generate a small population of cells that can be used for therapeutic purposes,” said James Turpen, Ph.D., professor and vice chairman for education in the UNMC Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy.
“Right now, it appears as though the whole approach of SCNT is going to revolutionize medicine as we move forward because it would allow scientists to study the early stages of disease,” Dr. Turpen said. “It’s a kind of technology we really don’t want to have banned in the state of Nebraska.”
Dr. Turpen will testify against the bill at today’s Judiciary Committee hearing, which begins at 1:30 p.m. in the State Capitol.
Although UNMC is not doing any therapeutic cloning, Dr. Turpen said, “science is a discipline where you have to follow questions.” Therefore, it’s conceivable, he said, that a medical center researcher might someday want to use such technology to answer questions that are being asked.
Opponents of LB 700 — ranging from a businessman to a pastor to a juvenile diabetes patient — are expected to testify on the impact such a ban, if approved, would have on the state’s economy, its medical research and the potential for cures and treatments of debilitating diseases.
Under the bill, LB 700 would criminalize reproductive and therapeutic cloning, classifying them as a felony and imposing harsh penalties. Patients with diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, cancer and other debilitating diseases say a ban denies them and their families life-affirming hope, as well as the right to support the research and obtain new therapies and possibly life-saving cures.
The research community says it will trigger a dulling effect on the state’s research enterprise, which brings in more than $80 million annually from external sources and has resulted in the creation of more than 2,400 highly-skilled jobs in Nebraska.
Only six states have passed similar laws, although none as punitive as LB 700. Nebraska’s neighbor, Iowa recently repealed its law because of the negative effects to its research enterprise, while Michigan is trying to repeal its law. South Dakota, North Dakota and Arkansas are the only other states that ban such research.
Meanwhile, other states — such as California, Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey and Iowa — are aggressively seeking state funding to support SCNT and are recruiting researchers who conduct it. Iowa Gov. Chet Culver has recommended that the Legislature establish a $12.5 million Center for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Iowa.
For more information on stem cells visit UNMC’s Web site at www.unmc.edu/stemcell/ or the National Academies at www.nationalacademies.org.
Blog entries related to today’s stem cell hearing can be read at www.unmc.edu/blog/stemcell.