In Heartland, Stem Cell Research Meets Fierce Opposition

Hat tip: Heart, Mind & Strength

From the Washington Post:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The moral debate over embryonic stem cells stretches far beyond Capitol Hill to state capitals and research parks across the country, where a fierce competition is underway from Maryland to California for cutting-edge research and the profits that could follow.

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Here in Missouri, a similar battle is raging over the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, which has built a $300 million laboratory and stocked it with sophisticated machines for nearly 200 scientists recruited from as far afield as China and Argentina.

Yet social conservatives in the Missouri legislature are effectively blocking some of the most ambitious research envisioned by the Stowers staff, saying that research with embryonic stem cells is so immoral it should be a crime.

"I believe that a human embryo is worthy of legal protection," said state Sen. Matt Bartle (R), who vows to press the fight. "Western medicine has been founded on a principle: First, do no harm."

Repeated legislative efforts by Bartle and his colleagues forced the Stowers Institute to curtail recruiting and stop planning for a second 600,000-square-foot facility. At the same time, those efforts have spurred creation of an impromptu statewide alliance of business leaders, liberal science advocates and antiabortion Republicans who favor the research for reasons of health care and job growth.

Advocates in Missouri and beyond expect the outcome to have broad implications for politics and science as states struggle to define the limits of medical inquiry. This is true whether the research money comes from private pockets, as in Kansas City, or the public treasury, as in California, where $3 billion approved by voters has been blocked by lawsuits and legislative maneuvers.

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"The blue states have been rushing to embrace opportunities in stem cell research," said Patrick M. Kelly, vice president of state government relations at the Washington-based Biotechnology Industry Organization. "California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, now Illinois. That has not been a phenomenon that has swept through the red states."

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