Mass. health panel set to reverse Romney-backed stem cell rules
By Steve LeBlanc, Associated Press Writer  |  October 8, 2007
BOSTON --A state health panel appointed by Gov. Deval Patrick is poised to
undo stem cell regulations created under former Gov. Mitt Romney that
scientists said put a chill on their work and undermined a 2005 law intended
to encourage the controversial research.
The rules have made it harder for scientists to collaborate with colleagues
in other states, and could lead to a brain drain, with promising young
researchers bolting Massachusetts, advocates said.
"Those terrific young scientists have a lot of other opportunities," said
David Scadden, a professor at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard
Stem Cell Institute.
"We want the perception that Massachusetts is a place where this research is
welcomed, is thought to be important and is supported," he said.
Critics, however, say tougher regulations are needed to bar against the
exploitation of women and the creation of human embryos specifically for
research.
Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, said removing
the regulations put in place under Romney would open up a "Pandora's box of
creating human embryos in laboratory conditions on a wide-scale production."
"We need safeguards against the rampant exploitation of human life," he
said. "Harvesting eggs from women is an exploitation of women and creating
human embryos for the sole purpose of destroying them is an exploitation of
human life."
Romney, at the time gearing up for a run for the Republican presidential
nomination, also warned last year that embryonic stem cell research could
lead to an "Orwellian" future of "embryo farming."
Patrick has made the cutting edge research a major goal of his
administration. The Democratic governor has proposed a 10-year, $1 billion
life sciences initiative designed in part to create the world's largest
repository of new stem cells lines.
Key to the success of that project is the message that Massachusetts
welcomes the research, according to state Public Health Commissioner John
Auerbach.
"Researchers have told us this is a very competitive field, and they want to
be in an environment where they feel this work will be encouraged," Auerbach
said Monday. "We were running the risk of having the most promising and
brightest researchers leaving the institutions where they have done their
most groundbreaking work."
But Mineau brushed off warnings that the tougher regulations could send
researchers fleeing Massachusetts, calling it a "red herring" and saying
that the most promising research involves adult stem cells instead of those
derived from embryos.
Luckily for Patrick, state lawmakers -- as part of Massachusetts' landmark
health care law -- scrapped the old eight-member Public Health Panel
replaced it with a new 15-member panel, and gave the governor the power to
appoint the members.
That effectively gave Patrick control of the board, allowing him to push for
the changes.
One of the regulations approved by the council last year that drew the most
criticism would have expanded the prohibitions outlined in the law that make
it a crime for donors to create fertilized embryos with the sole intent of
"donating" the embryo for research.
The regulation instead prohibited the creation of a fertilized embryo for
the sole intent of "using" it for research.
It sounds like a minor change, but Scadden said it effectively forced
researchers in Massachusetts to trace the history of any stem cell lines
they used -- even those from states with less stringent regulations.
"That just had a bit of a chill -- trying to track down the provenance of
all the cells that were being used," he said. "We could be bringing in
something that could potentially be in violation of the law."
Romney has said that while he favored research on existing stores of stem
cells, which can become any cell in the body and thus are considered
valuable workhorses for research, he opposes somatic cell nuclear transfer
in which scientists clone embryos with the genes of a person with a
particular disease.
"It crosses a very bright line to take sperm and eggs in the laboratory and
start creating human life. It creates embryos. It is Orwellian in scope," he
said last year. "In laboratories, you could have trays of new embryos being
created. It's almost like the movie, 'The Matrix.'"
But lawmakers said the regulations were an end-run around the legislative
process.
The Massachusetts House had earlier voted 107-48 against a Romney amendment
to the 2005 law that had proposed: "No person shall knowingly create an
embryo by the method of fertilization with the sole intent of using the
embryo for research."
© Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Rayilyn Brown
Board Member AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation
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