# 346 Friday, June 28, 2007 - SCANDALS AND SURPRISES, ODDS AND ENDS.

SCANDAL: I don't have all the facts yet, (and would appreciate comments from
Missourians!) but it seems Missouri just experienced a loss-or theft!--
which deserves national attention.

I received an email from a friend that Richard and Virginia Stowers have
decided to not go forward with their two billion dollar medical research
institute in Missouri.

Consider what this means. Missouri went through an enormous effort to make
sure that any stem cell treatment that Washington allowed would also be
legal in the Show Me state. Amendment 2 added that stipulation into their
state Constitution.

The Religious Right chose to oppose this-even after the people voted.
Working through the Catholic Church in Missouri, the opponents of research
decided to overturn the vote with an initiative to outlaw the Somatic Cell
Nuclear Transfer (SCNT, sometimes called therapeutic cloning) which had just
been allowed.

Apparently, if my understanding is correct, the Stowers figured it was more
important that the research go forward-in another state-than that it happen
in Missouri.

After a great and hard-won victory, the people of Missouri will be denied
the research which might save lives and ease suffering.

I regard this as an unconscionable violation of the
Constitutionally-mandated separation of Church and State.

The Religious Right, with the collusion of the conservative arm of the
Republican Party, denied Missouri a medical research facility.

Please folks, let me know what you know on this. Forward me articles,
comments, anything.

The national press may overlook this; we must not.


Odds and Ends:

SUSPENSE: The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine Presidential
Search Committee seems to be close to announcing a recommendation on the new
President..Monday I sat outside one of the meeting rooms (held at multiple
sites across the state) hoping today would be the day, but no, not yet.

SURPRISE: the Big State Project is draining my energies, but sooooo worth
it- so much is going on, nobody is able to keep track of it-including me, of
course, which is why I am trying to do it.

Briefly, I am trying to find out what stem cell legislation is pending in
which states-seems to be about 39 states have stem cell laws cooking up-but
many seen to be unnoticed.

 For instance, I talked to one state college dean yesterday and asked him
how bill X was doing? He said he never heard of it. I said, it is a bill to
authorize your college to do a full-scale stem cell research program. He
looked it up, said, ooops, there it is, it is real, it looks good-no, there
it just died after going through four committee hearings! It might have
changed the whole state-it failed by a slender margin, just a couple of key
committee votes--and nobody in the support community seemed to know about
it.

Senate Bill 30, the "Hope" Act, is being used as a way to poison state
efforts. Georgia just got denied the right to fund embryonic or SCNT
research because their new law specifically mentions Senate Bill 30-that law
will come back again and again-already Florida had a major battle on it,
which is not over yet-Georgia lost.

However, Georgia has some tough-minded folks, like Senator David Adelman,
and he has some plans to fight-stay tuned.

QUESTION: What stem cell subject(s) would you most like to see a letter to
the editor written about? I am doing a 50-letter writing project, trying to
bring together sample letters on all aspects of the stem cell battle-what
are your thoughts? Drop me a line at: [log in to unmask]

APPRECIATION: Thanks to all the nice people who sent me information on the
Massachusetts-asked question: are there any state-funded embryonic stem cell
banks? The answer is no. There is the national stem cell bank (embryonic,
the presidentially-approved lines) at Wisconsin, and that's about it. Canada
has one as well.

Onward and upward!
Don Reed
www,stemcellbattles.com

Rayilyn Brown
Board Member AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation
[log in to unmask]

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