UK Pushes Ahead While States Battle Over Stem Cell Funding

Today, as Massachusetts Senate Robert Travaglini was proposing yet another Stem Cell Research Bill, Scottish Scientist Ian Wilmut was granted the second UK license to conduct stem cell research.  Following the landslide passage of California's proposition 71 which promises three billion in funding for stem cell research over the next decade, many states are attempting to jump on the bandwagon before losing scientists to California.  Recently, New York announced legislation to commit 1 billion to stem cell research, while New Jersey Governor Richard J. Cody called for  380 million for stem cells.  Washington State is also considering legislation that would commit 1 billion to stem cell research.  These states are moving aggressively at a time when stem cell research is highly controversial and not funded by the federal government.

Embryonic stem cells are believed to be pluripotent,  having the potential to develop into any kind of cell in the human body.  In the context of the stem cell debate, cloning refers to somatic cell nuclear transfer during which the nucleus of an unfertilized embryo is replaced with the nucleus of an adult cell. Dolly the sheep, created by Dr. Ian Wilmut in 1998  was the first cloned mammal to survive to maturity.  Today, the UK government, the first to legalize embryonic stem cell research, awarded Dr. Wilmut it's second research license for embryonic stem cell research.  Dr. Wilmut plans to clone cells from patients suffering motor neuron disease and compare the evolution of cells in affected embryos against those in healthy embryos.  There is no intention of developing an embryo to maturity.

For more on stem cell research visit the National Institute of Health.

Read the text of the Presidents remarks on stem cell research, August, 9, 2001.

The United Nations will  take Up the proposition of a global stem cell treaty again in March.