Senate bill sets rules for stem cell research

State senators unveiled a bill yesterday that would proclaim the Bay State's firm support for embryonic stem cell research, but require scientists conducting certain cutting-edge research to obtain licenses from the Department of Public Health. . The bill also would set fines as high as $1 million for those who violate new state rules governing stem cell work.

The measure is an attempt to keep stem cell researchers from decamping to other states, while assuaging the ethical concerns of uneasy legislators on Beacon Hill.

The Senate is expected to approve the bill tomorrow, and the House is likely to follow suit soon after that. But top lawmakers said yesterday they were uncertain if they had the two-thirds majorities in both bodies that would be needed to override Governor Mitt Romney's expected veto.

The crux of the debate is likely to be what is called somatic cell nuclear transfer, or therapeutic cloning, which supporters say is a promising form of stem cell research that could lead to cures for Parkinson's disease and other illnesses. Romney opposes that form of stem cell research because he says it involves the creation and destruction of human life. Supporters of the bill strongly disagree but, in a nod to uneasiness about therapeutic cloning, they would require researchers to get state licenses to conduct it.

''If you create an embryo, a human embryo, which if you implant it in a woman could become a human child, you have created new human life," Romney said yesterday. ''It's not breathing yet, but it's life."

The governor has said he reached his position after meeting with researchers, ethicists, and advocates and discussing the issue with his wife, Ann. Ann Romney has multiple sclerosis, a disease that might eventually be treated or cured as a result of stem cell research.

In another development yesterday, Romney blasted a television ad by stem cell proponents as misrepresenting his position on the controversial issue by suggesting he opposes all forms of stem cell research, which he said is inaccurate.

The ad is financed by businessman Chris Gabrieli, a former Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.

Joe Ganley, a spokesman for Gabrieli's Committee for a Better Commonwealth, said one station, WCVB-TV, asked that wording in the ad be changed from ''Romney wants to ban this research" to ''Romney opposes this bill."

Over the weekend and again yesterday, lawmakers continued to revise language in the legislation dealing with regulation. The House favors a stronger oversight role for the Department of Public Health, but Senate Democrats said yesterday they fear that the department, controlled by Romney, could block some forms of stem cell research.

The challenge for the authors of the bill is to provide just enough oversight to win support from two thirds of the House. House members are expected to meet today to discuss the bill, with a vote in the full House expected Thursday.

Senate President Robert E. Travaglini said yesterday he believes that House members will become more supportive when they have more time to review the issue. The bill does not include money or tax incentives for stem cell researchers, though Travaglini has suggested that the Legislature may soon move in that direction.

''The more people familiarize themselves and educate themselves about the issue, the conversion rate is very high," he said.

Travaglini pledged several weeks ago to push legislation endorsing stem cell research, but the legislation released yesterday provided new details of the proposed regulations.

The Senate bill stipulates that embryonic stem cell research only can take place in institutions with formal Institutional Review Boards of at least five members to approve and review the research. In addition, every institution conducting research must submit annual, detailed reports to a new state Stem Cell Research Advisory Board, which will have members appointed by the governor, Senate president, and House speaker.

Stem cells -- which are found in embryos, umbilical cords, and some adult tissues -- have the potential to develop into a range of muscles, organs, nerves, and other types of tissue in the body. But researchers are most interested in stem cells from human embryos, because they are the most versatile. Those cells may be able to repair and regenerate damaged tissue and organs, such as spinal cords severed in accidents.

Some groups on Beacon Hill are opposed to any kind of embryonic stem cell research, believing, as the Catholic Church and other abortion opponents do, that an embryo is a human being.

Romney's position is more complex: He says that while he supports the use of embryos left over from in vitro fertilization that are being discarded, he opposes the use of embryos produced through cloning specifically for research. The bill submitted yesterday would allow both, though it would ban human reproductive cloning, or the creation of babies.

Massachusetts Citizens for Life and the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, which have lobbied against the Legislature's previous efforts to approve stem cell bills, said they oppose the governor's stance because they argue that a human embryo is a human being that should not be destroyed, even if it is left over from in vitro fertilization.

Supporters of the bill argue that Romney's opposition to somatic cell nuclear transfer, or therapeutic cloning, is misguided. The approach involves taking the nucleus of a somatic cell such as skin, heart, or nerve cell and implant it in a human egg cell that has its own nucleus removed. This will be stimulated to grow in a laboratory dish for several days until it becomes a nearly featureless ball of about 200 cells known as a blastocyst. Researchers then develop a new batch of embryonic stem cells from this blastocyst.

''I can't quite figure out where the governor's objections are coming from," said Representative Daniel E. Bosley, the North Adams Democrat who is shepherding the bill in the House. ''Somatic cell nuclear transfer involves transferring a nucleus into an egg, not an embryo. It is then tricked into thinking it is fertilized. It is not a fertilized embryo. Many scientists feel that it cannot be implanted, and, if it is implanted, that it will not grow."

Travaglini said that researchers were involved in the drafting of the Senate bill and that they are willing to accept more regulation in return for the certainty that would come with an explicit state endorsement of their work. While scientists are conducting stem cell research now, current state law is ambiguous on its legality.

''We already have a fair amount of oversight and regulation within our own institution, but we're comfortable with any legitimate oversight at the state level that would give the public greater comfort that the work is being monitored," said George Q. Daley, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital in Boston who is conducting stem cell research.

''I'm sure there are some libertarians in the scientific community who would prefer that no regulations be in place, but I think I'm fairly representative when I say we'll allow some regulation that will allow the research to proceed."

Scott Greenberger can be reached at greenberger@globe.com.