Senate OK's research on stem cells

State senators overwhelmingly approved a measure yesterday promoting embryonic stem cell research in Massachusetts, dealing a defeat to Governor Mitt Romney by endorsing a research technique that involves the cloning of human cells.

The bill faces a vote in the House today, where lawmakers are confident of passage but uncertain they can produce the two-thirds majority that would be necessary to override Romney's expected veto. The GOP governor met with House Republicans Tuesday in a bid to rally support.

Many senators described yesterday's vote as historic, suggesting that Massachusetts is putting itself at the forefront of scientific efforts that could lead to cures of diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Only two other states, California and New Jersey, have explicitly proclaimed their support for stem cell research.

Soon after the 35-2 vote, Senate President Robert E. Travaglini said it ''sends a very clear message that we are serious about removing the cloud over this type of research that offers so much promise and hope to so many families that are afflicted with debilitating and degenerative diseases."

Researchers are already conducting stem cell work in Massachusetts, but they fear that an ambiguous state law could be used to block their plans to begin cloning human cells to make embryonic stem cells.

The bill would ban reproductive human cloning, or the creation of babies, but allow scientists to produce embryos for research. Romney backs embryonic stem cell research using embryos left over from in vitro fertilization, but he opposes the creation of human embryos for research through a process called therapeutic cloning or somatic cell nuclear transfer. He has said he will reject a bill that allows therapeutic cloning.

The Senate's vote was not unexpected; senators approved a stem cell measure two years ago by a similarly lopsided tally, and the protesters who have flocked to the State House for debates on other social issues were missing yesterday.

''The vote in the Senate is not surprising, because the Senate president is the prime sponsor of this legislation," said Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom.

''The cloning of human embryos for experimentation has never been done in this country," he said. ''The United Nations has condemned this practice as unethical. Governor Romney supports stem cell research, but not this radical cloning bill."

Romney has tried to capitalize on the public's uneasiness about cloning by running radio ads denouncing the Senate measure as ''a radical cloning bill" and arguing that it ''would mean creating new human life, new embryos, just for experimentation." Recent polls indicate strong support for stem cell research, but deep doubts about using human cells cloned in a laboratory.

In arguing Romney's position on the Senate floor, Senate minority leader Brian P. Lees said that endorsement of therapeutic cloning is too controversial to be included in the bill and that taking it out would not affect most researchers.

''I agree that this type of research has the potential to cure many diseases. However, because this bill sets an unprecedented course into uncharted territory, I believe this body should proceed more cautiously," the East Longmeadow Republican said. ''This part is such a miniscule part of the overall research going on anyway."

But only two other Republican senators backed the Lees amendment echoing Romney's position: Robert L. Hedlund of Weymouth and Michael R. Knapik of Westfield.

Currently, only one team of scientists, in South Korea, has cloned a human cell for stem cell research. However, many researchers see the technique as a promising avenue that will allow them to study diseases in ways they cannot with any other approach. Two groups in the Boston area, one based at Harvard University and one at Children's Hospital, are making plans to use the technique.

Proponents of the bill say that Romney is muddying the issue when he says therapeutic cloning is the creation of human life. The process involves taking the nucleus of a cell such as a skin, heart, or nerve cell and implanting it in a human egg cell that has had its nucleus removed. The egg cell is then 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.

Because the egg is never fertilized, supporters argue, scientists are not creating a human life. Researchers say that creating stem cells through cloning will make it much easier to study specific diseases and, perhaps, find cures for individual patients.

In a letter read on the floor of the Senate, Senator Charles E. Shannon, who is battling cancer and could not attend the vote, said Romney is using a ''transparent scare tactic" in an attempt to derail the bill. ''This bill will help save lives," the Winchester Democrat said in his letter.

Representative Daniel E. Bosley, the North Adams Democrat who is shepherding the House version of the stem cell measure, said his colleagues are increasingly comfortable with the idea of somatic cell nuclear transfer as they learn more about it.

''The more people understand that somatic cell nuclear transfer is done for some very specific reasons with an unfertilized egg, they're questioning what the governor's reasoning is," Bosley said. ''He's OK with using embryos, but not with using unfertilized eggs that many scientists don't even think could even be implanted" in a woman's uterus.

Bosley cautioned, however, that House members are likely to favor stricter state regulation and oversight than the Senate, meaning negotiators from the two chambers may have to hash out differences before the bill heads to Romney. One key difference is on how influential the Department of Public Health should be, with House members backing a strong role for the agency and Senate Democrats fearing that Romney or another governor could use the executive department to block therapeutic cloning despite the Legislature's endorsement.

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. Researchers are interested in stem cells because they might be able to repair damaged tissue and organs, such as spinal cords severed in accidents. Some researchers are especially interested in stem cells from human embryos, called embryonic stem cells, because they are the most versatile.

Some lawmakers are opposed to any kind of embryonic stem cell research, believing as the Catholic Church and other antiabortion groups do that an embryo is a human being, whether it is left over from in vitro fertilization or produced by therapeutic cloning. They tout adult stem cells as a more promising and ethical avenue of research.

Former House speaker Thomas M. Finneran shared the Catholic Church's view, and he managed to block a House vote on the stem cell research during his speakership. But the church's public policy arm acknowledged yesterday that at this point it will be difficult to slow Beacon Hill's rush to approve some form of embryonic stem cell bill.

''It's a tragedy that now thousands of human embryos in this state, whether they are cloned or not, are going to be subjected to the whims of scientists who want to cross over ethical boundaries and experiment on them," said Maria Parker, interim executive director of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference. ''We all want cures, too, but there is a way to go about finding a cure. Science should never have to kill in order to cure."

Scott Greenberger can be reached at greenberger@globe.com. Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.