Stem cell bill seen heading to passage

A bill encouraging human embryonic stem cell research in Massachusetts will probably pass both houses of the Legislature by the end of March, Democratic leaders predicted yesterday, but they remained unsure whether they can override an anticipated veto by Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican.

''By the end of this month, I'd like to have that bill on the governor's desk," House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi told members of the Jewish women's group Hadassah, which supports stem cell research. ''I'm here to tell you that you have my support."

Senate President Robert E. Travaglini issued a similarly confident prediction and said for the first time that if the stem cell measure passes, he hopes to move on to more ambitious proposals that would devote state funds to the industry.

''The first phase is to authorize the research," Travaglini said. ''The second phase will be to determine to what degree the Commonwealth can allocate financial resources specifically for this purpose."

Travaglini said the Senate has the two-thirds majority needed to override a gubernatorial veto, and he urged supporters to lobby House lawmakers to build a similar majority there. DiMasi declined to speculate on whether two-thirds of the House would agree to override a Romney veto, but Representative Daniel E. Bosley, who cochairs the committee presiding over the bill, said he expects the bill to pass handily.

Democrats hold overwhelming majorities in both houses, meaning that a party-line vote would override a gubernatorial veto.

But lobbying has heated up, with the Roman Catholic Church strongly opposing the measure because it believes it will endanger human embryos and lead to human cloning. Many legislators have said they need more time to understand the moral and ethical implications of the bill.

The bill the House and Senate are expected to pass does not include state money for stem cell research. Though stem cell research is taking place in Massachusetts, Travaglini and business leaders want to pass a law expressly permitting such work and allowing scientists to produce cloned human embryos for research as long as the embryos are never implanted in a womb. The lawmakers and business leaders say they want to encourage the growth of the industry here and continue to compete with California, which passed an unprecedented $3 billion stem cell bond initiative last fall.

Romney, in Massachusetts and across the country, has denounced one aspect of Travaglini's bill that would specifically encourage the type of research known as therapeutic cloning, which involves producing an embryo and later destroying it to harvest stem cells.

But Shawn Feddeman, Romney's press secretary, said it would be incorrect to conclude that the governor would definitely veto Travaglini's bill. ''The governor has taken a position based on principle, but we're not going to make predictions about a piece of legislation that may change or that may or may not even make it to his desk," Feddeman said.

Senator Jack Hart and Bosley, who cochair the committee that is considering the bill, said they expect a number of amendments to be debated on the floor before the measure comes up for a final vote. For example, lawmakers are strongly considering adding a provision to the bill to create a state umbilical cord blood bank to encourage a less controversial form of research using cord blood as a source of stem cells for future medical treatments.

A bill promoting stem cell research was blocked last year by Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, and this year it has again generated intense emotions on both sides of the issue. The bill's supporters say it will encourage research that can lead to cures of diseases such as Parkinson's and diabetes.

Opponents say the bill condones unethical science and relies on the destruction of human life.

Daniel Avila -- associate director for policy and research at the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm of the church -- said his organization is speaking to lawmakers as often as possible to generate opposition, but has found that most lawmakers remain unschooled in the complicated science involved and that head-counting thus remains difficult at best.

''People still seem to be at the very bottom of the learning curve and are unsure what to do," Avila said. ''I just don't see a veto-proof majority yet."

Members of a small Catholic parish have staged a protest outside Travaglini's East Boston home for the last several days to protest his support of the bill. In addition, the Pilot, the official newspaper of the Boston Archdiocese, published an editorial last week opposing the bill and saying it would lead to human cloning. Travaglini said yesterday that the bill explicitly bans human cloning.

Other religious groups support the Travaglini measure.

Yesterday, Hadassah's national president and several dozen members of the 13,000-member state chapter met with 55 lawmakers to encourage them to support the stem cell bill. Varda E. Farber, vice president of education and Zionism for the Boston Hadassah chapter, said Travaglini and DiMasi urged such efforts to get wavering legislators to back the bill.

''The sense that we got was that they have an indication this bill will be vetoed by Governor Romney and will not be a shoo-in," said Farber, of Newton. ''We were encouraged by them and Senator Harriette Chandler to continue with our advocacy after we left the State House today, because the battle is not over and it's certainly not a sure thing."

Chandler, a Worcester Democrat who cosponsored the bill, said she hopes the women's efforts will speed up the passage of this bill with the two-thirds majority it needs to survive a veto.

''These women came prepared with all types of materials and understood the issues here," she said. ''They realize we're talking about a bill that clarifies the status of embryonic stem cell research, which is unclear and limited in the state right now."

The Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, which is supported by the 300,000-member American arm of the organization, began experimenting with embryonic stem cell research in 1998. The hospital has received grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.