NEW JERSEY: Assembly Passes Stem-Cell Research ... McGreevey Is Expected To Sign Bill
By THOMAS BARLAS Staff Writer, (609) 272-7201, E-Mail  [log in to unmask]

December 16, 2003

TRENTON - The Assembly voted Monday to allow stem-cell research in an emotional session that left many of the bill's
opponents and supporters in tears.

The bill got the 41 votes needed for approval after both parties argued passionately over its ethical implications and
whether it allows cloning.

Approval would allow research that could help cure illnesses that leave people thinking of death as their only "solace,
consolation and peace," said Assemblyman Neil Cohen, D-Union.

"Today, we are about to take significant action on a significant bill to help a significant amount of people," he said.
"Do this for your children and your grandchildren."

But Assemblywoman Allison McHose Littell, R-Sussex, Hunterdon, Morris, warned that under the bill a woman could have
"cloned cells put into her womb and then harvested."

"We are about to put New Jersey on the map as a thriving market for fetal stem-cell parts," she said.

It was left to Assemblyman Anthony Impreveduto, D-Bergen, Hudson, to sum up the feeling for both parties.

"This is a bill of conscience, a bill of morals," he said.

With Republicans and Democrats in the narrowly divided Assembly split on the measure, supporters had to scramble for
the 41 votes needed for approval.

When the number of affirmative votes stalled at 37, Democratic leaders worked the floor to get the needed supportive
tallies.

Assembly Speaker Albio Sires, D-Hudson, left the voting board open for about 10 minutes - an unusually long time -
while the search for votes continued.

The final tally was 41 votes in favor of the bill, 31 votes opposed and seven abstentions.

Supporters cheered and cried in happiness when the 41st vote was cast.

"Now we have the momentum to help improve quality of life," said Carol J. Walton, executive director of the Parkinson
Alliance.

Opponents were clearly angry.

"According to this bill, body parts could be taken through all nine months of pregnancy," said Anne Perone, president
of New Jersey Committee for Life. "Such trafficking in human tissue is already a booming sideline of the abortion
industry."

"We now look to the U.S. Senate to join the U.S. House of Representatives in passing a ban on all forms of human
cloning as soon as possible so that this disastrous legislation passed by the New Jersey Legislature will be
invalidated," said Marie Tasy, who heads New Jersey Right to Life.

The bill passed the state Senate 26-0 in December 2002.

The measure now goes to Gov. James E. McGreevey for approval.

He threw his support behind the bill in January, saying, "stem-cell research offers real hope to the hundreds of
thousands of New Jerseyans suffering from cancer, diabetes, damaged heart tissue, arthritis, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's,
ALS and spinal-cord injuries."

The bill runs counter to the federal government's restrictions on stem-cell research.

President Bush prohibited the federal funding of stem-cell research last year and banned all forms of stem-cell
cloning.

Proponents of the measure approved Monday said it allows for therapeutic cloning - essentially the cloning of one's own
DNA for medical purposes. It bans the use of cells for reproductive cloning.

Anti-abortion groups and the Catholic Church strongly oppose the measure because it allows for embryonic stem-cell
research. They instead encourage the use of adult stem cells - umbilical cord blood - for medical research.

Stem cells form very early in an embryo's growth and eventually develop into different types of cells to form various
organs and other parts of the body.

Although the bill does not provide for government funding, it allows scientists to work with embryonic stem cells
obtained from fertility treatments.

It also requires health-care professionals in New Jersey to inform patients at fertility clinics about the option to
donate embryos for scientific research.

Supporters of the research say thousands of unwanted embryos are simply discarded each year as medical waste.

To e-mail Thomas Barlas at The Press: [log in to unmask]

SOURCE: The Press of Atlantic City, NJ
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/newjersey/121603STEMCELL_D15.html

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