Bill to ban cloning, public research money moves forward

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By JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star

The Nebraska Legislature could get an opportunity this session to debate a bill that would ban reproductive cloning and publicly funded research that would create or destroy human embryos.

A compromise, worked on for nine months by members of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, was voted out of committee Thursday afternoon.

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But it won’t have the support of Julie Schmit-Albin, a key member of Nebraska’s Right to Life community.

Omaha Sen. Steve Lathrop, who played a key role in the compromise, said the Stem Cell Research Act would:

n Make it a felony to create a human embryo by somatic cell nuclear transfer and implant it into a uterus or uterine-like device.

n Create an advisory committee of Nebraska medical school deans and scientists from outside Nebraska who are conducting federally funded human stem cell research. The committee’s job would be to award grants to institutions or scientists for research using nonembryonic stem cells, such as cord blood or adult stem cells.

n Create a stem cell research cash fund, which would provide matching funds of up to $500,000 a year.

n Prohibit the use of state facilities and funds to create an embryo by somatic cell nuclear transfer, and to destroy human embryos, for research purposes. Somatic cell nuclear transfer involves removing the nucleus of an unfertilized egg and replacing it with the nucleus of an adult cell, like a skin cell.

The compromise amendment, which will become LB606, was adopted on a 6-1 vote. The original bill (LB700), introduced by Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial, was killed by the committee.

Christensen said he hasn’t read the compromise amendment that replaced his bill.

“I was not allowed to be in the loop, and I’m not very happy about it,” he said.

There isn’t much he can do, he said, but to read the amendment and see if he agrees with it.

Lincoln Sen. DiAnna Schimek originally voted against the amendment and then passed on the advancement of the bill because there had been no discussion by committee members. She later changed to an affirmative vote on both.

Omaha Sen. Pete Pirsch voted against both the amendment and its move to the floor, saying he had not had time to read and understand all of what it contained.

Sen. Dwite Pedersen of Elkhorn was not at the committee’s executive session.

Sen. Vickie McDonald of St. Paul voted yes, but said she was relying on the work of those who crafted the compromise. “If we can get the powers that be, who understand it, to compromise, we have to support that,” she said.

Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford acknowledged there were differing views on the amendment, but they were able to find common ground.

Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, who through the years has opposed similar bills, said he would support the compromise, even though it does not go far enough.

“It’s one of those issues that not everyone is going to get what they want,” he said.

He is against human cloning, he said, but believes in scientific research. There are many fortunate discoveries that are stumbled upon, and this bill would allow researchers to produce more of those discoveries.

In an ideal world, said Ron Withem, University of Nebraska lobbyist, the university would rather not have restrictions in statute on the types of research that can be done. But University of Nebraska Medical Center officials can live with the bill, he said.

“We realize this is an emotional issue and there are strong differences of opinion,” he said.

The bill does not allow university researchers to create or destroy human embryos for research purposes, but UNMC researchers, for example, could use cell lines created elsewhere for research.

Schmit-Albin, executive director of Nebraska Right to Life, said she can’t support the bill because it is not a complete ban on cloning. The research cloning ban is only for the public side, she said. It would leave the door open for privately funded labs in the state to do research cloning, she said.

She is also concerned the research cloning ban has no criminal penalties.

She is suspicious, she said, that the university capitulated on research cloning and Chambers said he would support the compromise.

“Either it has no teeth or there is some loophole,” she said. “Sen. Chambers doesn’t roll over on issues like this.

“I want to see the private loophole closed.”

Chip Maxwell, a former state senator who now heads the Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research, said the amendment appears to accomplish the main points of the original LB700.

If someone attempted to create a private research facility, such as the privately funded Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, his group would come back to the Legislature to seek that prohibition.

“It may be possible to support this, but we would be watching like a hawk to make sure someone doesn’t do an end run around this,” he said.

Lathrop said that in all the time he was working on the compromise, no one even mentioned plans for a private, standalone research institute to fund such research.

Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.