Activists mobilize as stem cell bill arrives
Battle begins anew with group of supporters in place this year
By PATRICK JACKSON, The News Journal

Posted Monday, March 5, 2007

Sen. Robert L. Venables, D-Laurel, wants to move fast on his stem cell bill.


Rep. Deborah Hudson is a co-sponsor of the bill supporting stem cell research.
The battle was won a year ago with voices on the radio, images on local television and the subtle scent of power from a thousand roses wafting through Legislative Hall.

The petals have withered, but the resolve of those opposed to a bill regulating embryonic stem cell research in Delaware has not.

The people behind last year's Rose and a Prayer campaign already have mounted a radio campaign this year against a similar bill, introduced in January, by Sen. Robert Venables, D-Laurel, and Rep. Deborah Hudson, R-Fairthorne. Other elements of the campaign are still to be decided.

Last year's blitz against the bill caught stem cell research supporters largely unaware, but this year will be different.

Any new roses will be up against another gift gimmick -- LifeSavers, the centerpiece of a campaign in support of the bill to be announced today by a coalition-- of lawmakers, community organizations and others -- calling itself Stem Cell Go.

"Their gimmick last year was the roses that were sent to all the House members," said Stephanie Hansen, president of Stem Cell Go's board of directors. She lost her father to Lou Gehrig's disease. "We're going to be using packets of Life Savers because we want to cast this as being pro-cure and saving lives."

The new proposal -- Senate Bill 5 -- would set up a regulatory framework for publicly funded stem cell research in Delaware. It would outlaw human reproductive cloning, and the marketing and sale of human embryos. Only embryos from in-vitro fertilization clinics slated for destruction could be used for medical research.

The embryos would have to be donated by couples going through in-vitro who sign papers confirming their approval after being briefed on their options, including donating an embryo for possible use by another family.

The bill covers all forms of stem cell research, but embryonic stem cell research is the flashpoint in the battle that pits right-to-life groups, social conservatives and the Catholic Church against advocates for research to find cures to diseases, including cancer, juvenile diabetes, and Lou Gehrig's, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

Embryonic stem cell research is still in its early stages, but many scientists think it holds far greater long-term promise than using adult stem cells from bone marrow or umbilical cord blood. That's because embryonic stem cells are essentially blanks that scientists think they can adapt into any type of human tissue.

Critics of the research say this use of embryos is tantamount to murder because the embryo is destroyed in the process. They also contend that embryonic stem cell research has yet to provide cures, while adult stem cells are providing some cures right now. That's where they believe the research should focus.

Advocates of the bill say it's needed to clarify Delaware law, which is silent on the issue. Researchers are worried that this makes such work in Delaware risky because the legal grounds are not spelled out.

Some state officials hope a vibrant biotechnology sector will spur future economic growth and see the bill as important to that effort.

Bernice Schacter, a Wilmington resident and board member of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, was out of the country last spring when she heard that the stem cell bill had been gutted of everything but the ban on human cloning and trafficking in human embryos by the state House. That effectively killed the bill.

"I was floored," said Schacter, who suffers from MS and is vice president of the board for Stem Cell Go. "I couldn't believe they rejected a bill that encouraged good research and responsible science and fell for this rose gambit."

Schacter and other advocates have organized, raised money and vow not to let Senate Bill 5 go down without a fight. The group said it plans to counter in its ads what it thinks are lies and half-truths in opponents' ads.

A Rose and a Prayer organizers are not deterred.

"Maybe if there's an organization on the other side, we can come together and debate this issue," said Steve Jenkins, president of A Rose and a Prayer. "We are advertising on radio now. At this point, we would have to get together to see what else we are going to do, but we aren't going away."

Both sides encourage their supporters to contact legislators, call radio shows and write letters to the editor to push their position because Sen. Venables said he plans to move quickly on the bill.

"I'm not going to sit on it and wait until the last minute," Venables said. "I don't think the votes have changed very much in the Senate, but I know it's going to take some time to debate on the floor."

If the bill reaches the House, Hudson said she hopes to push it through before lawmakers break June 30 so it won't get caught up in 2008 election year politics.

Venables' supporters also hope that a national political shift on the issue, which helped end Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele's U.S. Senate bid, can help carry the issue here.

But U.S. Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., isn't so sure that national reverberations -- even echoes from Maryland -- will play a big role here. Castle's federal bill allowing public funding of embryonic stem cell research is the only piece of legislation President Bush has vetoed.

"I don't think what happened nationally, even over in Maryland, will have a big effect here. It's my experience that people pay more attention to local politics," said Castle, who supports the bill but won't lobby for it.

Jenkins said he is confident that the ethical arguments made a year ago will remain convincing.

"The supporters of the bill say it bans human reproductive cloning, but that's what embryonic stem cell research is," he said. "The only difference is that they kill the embryo before it develops too far. ... That's the moral question: What value do you assign to that life?"

Hansen said the researchers do not make that decision.

"What they don't understand is that, under this process, that decision has been made," Hansen said. "That embryo isn't going to become a baby. It's going to be declared medical waste, bleached and put in the trash. This way, maybe it could be used to help save a life."

Contact Patrick Jackson at 678-4274 or pjackson@delawareonline.com.

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