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LOUISIANA: House Votes To Ban Therapeutic Cloning By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press Writer Last modified: June 03. 2004 2:04AM BATON ROUGE, La. -- The fight is not over yet, but the full House and Senate are both on record now as opposing the cloning of human cells for research into stem cell therapies, as well as for human reproduction. That the Legislature would ban reproductive cloning was all but certain. But lawmakers had been divided over the issue of whether cloned cells should be used to develop "stem cells" - cells that scientists say could be used to develop cures to a host of ills. A 69-32 vote in the House on Wednesday night - a vote in which the House essentially reversed a position it had taken last month - means supporters of so-called therapeutic cloning have an uphill climb. At issue is the process that would create a new cell by uniting the nucleus of a donor's skin cell with a human egg that has been emptied of its nucleus. The result would be a cloned cell that could be implanted in a woman's womb to create a new person (a process not known to have happened yet) or used to create "stem cells," as has reportedly been done in South Korea. Stem cells, scientists believe, could be developed into different types of organ cells and could someday be used to cure diabetes, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Creating stem cells, however, destroys the cloned cell. That, said Rep. Gary Beard, R-Baton Rouge, would allow researchers "to clone a human being and then destroy a human life for the purpose of research." The key vote Wednesday night was on a bill by Beard. He had withdrawn the bill from debate last month when language allowing therapeutic cloning was added to it by Rep. Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte. But an extensive lobbying effort by the Roman Catholic Church, and other conservative groups led to Wednesday night's key vote stripping LaFleur's amendment. "I am a good Catholic and I'm pro-life," LaFleur declared, acknowledging the conflict with his church. But he said the cloned cell, never implanted in a womb, is not a human life, and it holds the potential for important cures. "If we're going to use fear or religion to fight against something that can possibly cure somebody, that is a mistake of policy in this state," LaFleur told the House. But he had lost many of the supporters he had earlier in the session. Rep. Holllis Downs, R-Ruston, was among those who switched, saying Beard's position was in line with one adopted recently by the United Methodist Church. Gov. Kathleen Blanco has not taken not taken a position on either bill but said Wednesday that the state needs some type of human cloning ban. She reserved judgment on which of the bills she would sign if both were to make it through the process. Sen. Don Hines, D-Bunkie, a physician and the president of the Senate has had some success with his bill that bans only cloning designed to reproduce a human being. His bill has been passed by the full Senate as well as the House Health and Welfare Committee, which heard testimony on Wednesday morning. But the Senate also has passed a more far-reaching bill by Sen. Art Lentini that, like Beard's, bans all cloning of human cells. Lentini's bill was tentatively scheduled for a hearing Thursday before the House Criminal Justice Committee, although the House, having approved Beard's bill, may choose to let Lentini bypass the committee and have his bill debated by the full House. Wednesday morning's Health and Welfare Committee hearing was the latest in a string of committee hearings pitting opponents of therapeutic human cloning against supporters of Hines' position. Some medical experts retired internist and teacher, Dr. W.A. Krotoski, told the Health and Welfare Committee that cloning for stem-cell research is unethical. They were joined by the fathers of two diabetic children who questioned the morality of using cloned cells to find cures and said embryonic stem cell research could divert resources from the use of so-called "adult" stem cells taken from sources including blood, umbilical cords and fat. On the other side are a host of other researchers, physicians, victims of various diseases and other parents of diabetic children, who hope embryonic stem cell research will lead to cures. One advantage of such cures, they have said, is that a diabetic child's own cloned cells could someday be used to develop a cure without the need for immunity- suppressing anti-rejection drugs. That was an argument taken up later on the House floor Wednesday night by LaFleur, to no avail. "It's wrong for a mother to donate an egg and not be able to have her 17 or 18-year-old daughter donate a skin cell to create a cure," he said. SOURCE: Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL http://tinyurl.com/3h4vk * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn