Fearing a legislative attempt to ban human cloning will undermine medical research, a Nebraska lawmaker is offering a bill that would ensure that stem-cell research is allowed to continue in the state. Legislature '05

Sen. Joel Johnson of Kearney, a medical doctor, introduced his bill (LB580) Tuesday in response to a human-cloning ban offered earlier by Sen. Adrian Smith of Gering.

Smith's bill would also ban creating embryos for stem-cell research.

Johnson's bill would ban reproductive cloning but would allow the creation of embryos for stem-cell research.

Johnson and other backers of stem-cell research argue the cells potentially could be tweaked to grow into any human tissue and some day could reverse spinal cord injuries and treat diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

But because embryos are destroyed when stem cells are extracted, the process is opposed by some people who link it to abortion.

Johnson fears if Smith's ban is passed, researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and elsewhere would leave the state.

"There are too many people that have worked too many years to establish a world-class research program at UNMC," he said. "If we have legislation that basically tells scientists, ‘You are not welcome here,' then all of this work will be threatened."

Johnson said his measure was inspired by the efforts of U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who is leading a push to ease the Bush administration's restrictions on federal financing of embryonic stem-cell research.

Bush signed an executive order in August 2001 that limited federal help to financing stem-cell research on 78 embryonic stem-cell lines then in existence.

Johnson said Nebraska will be at a competitive disadvantage if Smith's bill is passed.

"There isn't any question that the research is going to happen," he said. "Around the world, there are people tooling up to do stem-cell research."

California created its own stem cell institute in November after 59 percent of state voters approved Proposition 71, a bond measure that will provide an average of $295 million in grants annually for 10 years.

In New Jersey, acting Gov. Richard J. Codey has proposed spending $150 million for the construction of the New Jersey Stem Cell Institute, and said he would ask state voters to approve an additional $230 million to nurture research in the new technology.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has unveiled plans to invest nearly $750 million to bolster stem- cell research and other scientific efforts in Wisconsin.

Those who maintain that all human cloning must be banned argue that a cloned embryo is a human even before implantation in the womb, and to destroy it for research would be immoral.

In cloning, genes from an adult cell are implanted into a human egg from which all the genetic material has been removed. The egg is then cultured into an embryo that, if implanted in a womb, would produce an offspring that would be a genetic duplicate of the cell donor.

The hope is that building-block stem cells in the embryos would be genetic matches capable of being transplanted into patients whose cells are damaged by disease.

Smith wasn't buying that argument.

"It's an effort to protect unethical research," Smith said of Johnson's bill. "I don't think academic freedom is intended, nor should it be, an anything-goes policy."