NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Tuesday, March 6, 2007 6:00 pm
Two teenagers with juvenile diabetes spoke to the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee on Thursday, one on each side of a bill that would ban research using therapeutic cloning.
Both teens said living with diabetes is not easy. And both would like to see a cure for their disease.
Megan Berens, a Lincoln seventh-grader, said she would like to be able to go out with her friends without having to worry about testing her blood sugars. She would like to be free from explaining why she has an insulin pump.
But most of all she would like to be free from the fears about a future complicated by diabetes — the fear of going blind, the fear of not waking up in the morning.
Megan, who opposes the anti-cloning bill (LB700), asked senators not to put roadblocks in the way of research that might help find a cure for diabetes.
But Erica Robinson of Omaha urged senators to pass the anti-cloning measure. The disease is manageable, she said. “Killing people to find a cure for this manageable disease is not an answer,” she said.
The central theme for supporters of the anti-cloning bill is their belief that therapeutic cloning creates an embryo, human life that is then destroyed for research.
“It is an embryo, a human being at its earliest stages of development,” said Greg Schleppenbach, lobbyist for the Nebraska Catholic Conference.
John Lillis, with Nebraskans United for Life, offered a more emotional description. “Save the embryonic Americans. No matter what it takes.”
Several supporters of the bill said they, in good conscience, could not use a therapy developed using therapeutic cloning. This research is “unpromising, immoral and unethical because it uses a human being,” said Rita Hejkal, an Omahan with multiple sclerosis.
Opponents of the bill viewed therapeutic cloning differently.
“Persons of faith are not of one mind on the issue of stem cell research,” said Dwight Williams, pastor of Peace Presbyterian Church in Elkhorn.
“There are many of us who believe this research is life affirming,” Williams said. “No one single perspective represents the voice of religious and ethical conscience,” he said.
“As a person of faith, I feel that it is a mistake to automatically criminalize important research, including therapeutic cloning, the goal of which is to produce cells that can help us study the biology of diseases,” he said. That is a “partnership between faith and science,” he said.
Therapeutic cloning is not an attempt to clone a new human being, said James Turpen, University of Nebraska Medical Center professor. Researchers simply use that technique to create embryonic stem cells for research.
Reproductive cloning — intended to try to produce a human being — is unethical and highly improbable, he told senators. But therapeutic cloning is a technology that supporters hope may someday lead to cures for diseases.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial, would ban both reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning now used by researchers in a few states for embryonic stem cell research. People conducting such research would face felony charges under the bill.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center cannot now use therapeutic cloning under regents’ guidelines. So a bill making such research a felony is unnecessary and would have a negative impact on research in the state, said Ron Withem, NU lobbyist.
There may be a point in the future when it would be appropriate to participate in this kind of research, and regents may want to change the policy, said Turpen.
This bill “would make cutting-edge scientific inquiry a felony in Nebraska,” he said.
Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.