Stem cell showdown looming in Maryland

WASHINGTON -- The national debate over research using embryonic stem cells will arrive in Annapolis today, when Maryland lawmakers are expected to introduce legislation to spend state money on science that the federal government refuses to fund.

Modeled after a successful ballot initiative in California, the legislation calls for Maryland to spend $25 million a year on research that has been restricted by President Bush at the federal level.

Supporters say the state money is needed to maintain Maryland's edge in the biotechnology sector and tout the promise that stem cell research offers for treatment of debilitating conditions, such as Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease.

Research using embryonic stem cells is strenuously opposed by people who believe that extracting cells from a viable embryo amounts to the destruction of human life.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch, Democrat of Anne Arundel, predicted in an interview that his chamber would pass the bill.

The politics are far more complicated for Senate leaders and for Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, who has yet to take a position on state funding for stem cell research.

Senator Paula C. Hollinger, Democrat of Baltimore County, the chief sponsor of the Senate bill, heads the committee that will consider the bill in the Senate, where opponents have begun plotting a filibuster in hopes of defeating it on the floor.

Ehrlich spokesman Henry Fawell said the governor would look closely at the bill and ''remains very sympathetic to the biotech companies in Maryland."

Ehrlich would face a certain outcry from abortion opponents in his party if he supported the legislation. As a member of Congress in 2001, in a letter to constituents, he called Bush's restriction of funding for embryonic stem cell research ''a positive step."

A representative of the Maryland Catholic Conference said lawmakers should not be talking about the economic gain from research on viable embryos. ''It's absolutely unethical to create a human life for the purpose of destroying it," said Nancy Fortier, an associate director of the conference. ''It's wrong to treat life as raw material in a science research project."

A successful ballot initiative in California in the fall that authorized as much as $3 billion over the next decade to pay for research on ''nonqualifying" stem lines in the state. Since then, a similar initiative has been launched in Florida. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Wisconsin have also dedicated state money to stem cell research or are considering doing so.

Massachusetts legislators are weighing the need for stem cell subsidies.