At a recent state Capitol news conference organized by the University of Minnesota, two issues were paramount - therapeutic cloning and the sources for embryonic stem cell research.
Therapeutic cloning creates cells that are a person's exact genetic match. One method to create these cells is called SCNT, or somatic cell nuclear transfer. Basically, this process begins with an egg, removes the nucleus that contains the genetic material, then inserts another person's cells - in this discussion, the cells of one of the children with an incurable disease. While no sperm has fertilized the egg, this process creates what's termed a blastocyst, or the early stage of an embryo.
It's these embryos that pro-life advocates are concerned about protecting. They are also against the current source for embryonic stem cell research - embryos discarded by fertility clinics.
What's the value in SCNT? The scientific value of cells created by SCNT is that they can be used to reproduce other cells in the body that could potentially be used to cure now incurable diseases. And, although there are other methods of harvesting embryonic stem cells, SCNT is favored because the cells created are genetically identical to those of the patient, thereby virtually eliminating, it's hoped, the risk of rejection.
The proposed legislation would make SCNT a misdemeanor. Republicans strongly supported the measure, while Democrats opposed it.
In the April 1st twincities.com article, ''Proposed cloning ban roils supporters of stem-cell research in Minnesota”, Bill Poehler, a spokesman for Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, the state's largest anti-abortion group was quoted as saying: ''We're opposed to the destruction of any human life to save another.”
In the same article, Cheri Gunvalson, mother to a boy with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, a degenerative disease that's often fatal by late adolescence, was quoted as saying: ''I'm pro-life. I would personally never have an abortion. However, I would donate any part of my body, or my leftover eggs, to care for my son, and I think all mothers would feel the same.''
Dr. John Wagner, pediatrics professor and director of the division of hematology-oncology and blood and marrow transplantation at the University of Minnesota's Stem Cell Institute was quoted as saying: ''My goal here is to save lives, not take any lives,” per the same article.
Choices. Ideals. Morals. Science. Politics. Legalities. Perhaps calling to mind the words inspired by Loren Eiseley's ''The Star Thrower”, in which a young man, in futility - or not, depending on the reader's point of view - throws as many of the thousands of starfish washed ashore back into the sea so they won't die, makes for a fitting conclusion: ''It matters to this one.''
