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Pawlenty draws a line on issue of stem cell research
He expressed qualms about public funding for study on embryonic stem cells. The bill gets a hearing Wednesday.
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Gov. Tim Pawlenty signaled Monday that he may veto legislation that would allow state funding of embryonic stem cell research -- a move DFLers say could hamper the state's attempts to become a leader in bioscience advances.
Speaking to the Minnesota Family Council, Pawlenty said that while he supports some types of stem cell research, "I do not support wide-open embroynic stem cell research."
A House committee will hear a bill Wednesday that would, for the first time, specifically allow public funds to be used for embryonic stem cell research.
The bill has some bipartisan support in the DFL-led House and is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Dick Cohen, DFL-St. Paul, the Finance Committee head.
Cohen said there is "no scientific basis for what the governor is talking about. He's couching his support in terms that conservative politicians use to make it sound like they support stem cell research when they don't."
Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, who is sponsoring the House bill, said Pawlenty "is going in the same false direction with the idea that you put restrictions on it [stem cell research] that have no ethical background behind it."
Embryonic stem cell research became a partisan flashpoint in the last election, with Democrats accusing socially conservative Republicans of dimming hopes for potential breakthroughs on Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and other debilitating diseases. Republicans in turn said that potential gains were being overstated by Democrats for political gain and that innovations could be achieved without destroying embryos.
Brian McClung, Pawlenty's chief spokesman, said the governor endorses stem cell research so long as it doesn't "destroy potential life."
What Pawlenty supports
At the Family Council gathering, Pawlenty said he would support methods that rely on discarded umbilical cords, adult cell lines or cells that were extracted from embryos without damaging them.
Cohen has offered bills before that would allow public funding of embryonic stem cell research, but efforts had been stymied in the Republican-controlled House. Now that DFLers dominate both bodies, the bill could land on Pawlenty's desk, possibly forcing him to veto research that Cohen said is supported by a majority of Minnesotans.
The University of Minnesota's Stem Cell Institute studies both adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells from a limited number of lines approved for federal research funding by President Bush in 2001. Scientists at the U have said they want to expand that pool because some of the approved embryonic stem cell lines have been contaminated by other types of cells and are so small in number that they represent a mere fraction of the human gene pool, limiting research.
The university is pursuing private funding to expand its stem cell research. Its website notes that embryos would come from fertility clinics where parents have chosen to donate for research embryos that would otherwise be destroyed.
"The debate gets confused because people think we're saying this type of research won't take place at all," McClung said. "Private funding is doing all types of research and is proceeding under existing law."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Patricia Lopez • 651-222-1288 • plopez@startribune.com
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