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Monica Yant Kinney - N.J. Stem-Cell Law: 2 Sides, 2 Readings By Monica Yant Kinney Inquirer Columnist Posted on Tue, Jan. 06, 2004 Gov. McGreevey may want to take a pass on Mass for a while. Considering the fury over his signing a little bill called S1909 into law, God only knows what will happen the next time he steps into a house of worship. Someone could poison the Communion wine or plant a booby trap in the collection basket. And all because he signed a law promoting stem-cell research in New Jersey. Why, he even had the audacity to do the dirty deed on a Sunday. The uproar offers a fascinating study in reading comprehension, how two sides can look at the same language in radically different lights. Supporters see the law as a breakthrough for scientists searching for treatments and cures for cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other illnesses. Foes see blood - and blasphemy. "An all-out assault on humanity," screamed a news release from a group called Priests for Life. "The most radical human cloning measure ever put into law," read a headline in the Weekly Standard. Even the presence of all-American actor Christopher Reeve at the signing ceremony couldn't dampen the clamor across the country. Reeve, who grew up in Princeton and was paralyzed in a horseback-riding accident, said the law "opens one of the most promising lines of inquiry that research medicine has ever developed." Within hours, the Drudge Report offered a link with a more ominous prediction: "Jersey's Brave New World." Political petri dish Put simply, the law makes New Jersey the second state (after California) to authorize research involving human embryonic stem cells. Antiabortion advocates oppose the practice. And President Bush forbade the use of federal funds for research using new stem cells. Yet other prominent Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Nancy Reagan, have advocated limited stem- cell research. In New Jersey, scientists will be able to conduct research with donated embryos from fertility clinics. They will also be allowed to engage in a process known as "somatic cell nuclear transplantation." Now, there's a reason supporters prefer the clunky term somatic cell nuclear transplantation. That's because its nickname - "therapeutic cloning" - contains the word cloning. And cloning freaks people out. Never mind that "therapeutic cloning" is not "reproductive cloning." Or that the New Jersey law makes "reproductive cloning" a first-degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in jail and a $200,000 fine. "None of this research involves anything about growing anybody, anywhere," said University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan, who supported the legislation. "It's all taking place in a petri dish." Legal language lessons Try as I might when I read the law, I don't see anything allowing biotech companies to implant cloned embryos into willing women, then abort the fetuses for research. But I don't see anything specifically saying that's illegal, either. So I guess that's why some opponents have taken to proclaiming this as a foregone conclusion of what they like to call the "Clone-and-Kill Bill." Senate Copresident Richard Codey (D., Essex) and Assemblyman Neil Cohen (D., Union), two of the bill's sponsors, shudder at the suggestion. "Yeah, that was the real reason I did this," Cohen cracked, sarcastically. "Because I really wanted to have on my conscience the mass murders of children for fetal farming. I really want to harvest children, kill them, and take their body parts." Codey, who is Catholic, condemned the misinformation campaign. "This has nothing to do with abortion," he said. "These are unwanted embryos. Thousands of them are thrown away each year here." Like anything in modern medicine, the debate may wind up more about economics than abortion or cloning. And yet stem-cell research is still so new - Caplan calls it the "Wright Brothers stage" - that it could be a decade before anyone knows if it will flop, fly or ever become profitable. Until then, all we'll have is hot air. Monica Yant Kinney writes Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Contact her at 856-779-3914 or [log in to unmask] SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer, PA http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/7640500.htm * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn