Romney's ads blast stem cell measure
Senate legislation radical, governor says
Ratcheting up the political pressure on undecided lawmakers, Governor Mitt Romney will launch a radio ad today describing the state Senate's stem cell measure as a ''radical cloning bill" and urging its defeat.
''Cloning would mean creating new human life, new embryos, just for experimentation," Romney says in the 60-second ad, which will run on stations statewide, paid for by his political committee. ''If like me you support stem cell research but you oppose cloning human embryos, please tell your legislator. Help me oppose the radical cloning bill now on Beacon Hill."
Romney's maneuver, part of a flurry of activity on the eve of the Senate's vote on the issue today, is a bid to tap into the public's ambivalence over cloning. Recent polls indicate strong support for stem cell research, but deep doubts about the morality of cloning involving human cells. The bill under consideration on Beacon Hill would ban reproductive human cloning, or the creation of babies, but allow scientists to produce embryos for research. The latter is called therapeutic cloning or somatic cell nuclear transfer.
The Senate and House are expected to approve the measure, but it is unclear whether the House will produce a two-thirds majority that would be required to join the Senate in overriding Romney's expected veto. House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi said yesterday afternoon that ''I will do everything I can to get to two-thirds." But Kris Mineau of the Massachusetts Family Institute, which opposes all embryonic stem cell research but is backing Romney's stance, said, ''We are within striking distance of sustaining a veto."
As Romney prepared to roll out his ads, House Democrats met for over two hours to go over the legislation in preparation for that chamber's debate tomorrow. A scientist representing the conservative Family Research Council told Senate staff members about perceived flaws in the bill, using a PowerPoint presentation that would have been suited to a college lecture hall.
Meanwhile, US Senator Edward M. Kennedy who will be in Massachusetts today to promote stem cell research at a Boston firm, lent his support to the Legislature's effort to pass legislation endorsing stem cell research in the state.
Kennedy criticized those who would ''move toward criminalizing an area of medical research that holds great new hope for patients and their families," referring to Romney's efforts to ban therapeutic cloning.
''We should do all we can to support the search for medical breakthroughs that will keep Massachusetts on the cutting edge of science, not put up unwarranted barriers to new progress and new cures," said Kennedy, who supports therapeutic cloning.
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 many researchers are interested in stem cells from human embryos because they are the most versatile. For example, those cells may be able to repair and regenerate damaged tissue and organs, such as spinal cords severed in accidents.
Overall, proponents of the stem cell bill are seeking to promote the work in Massachusetts, while placing it in a regulatory framework that will assuage ethical concerns.
Some 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. They tout adult stem cells as a more promising and ethical avenue of research.
Romney supports the use of embryos left over from in vitro fertilization, which might be discarded anyway. His position against therapeutic cloning could help him woo religious conservatives in the 2008 presidential primaries.
''The supporters of cloning are trying to mislead people about what's happening at the State House," Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said yesterday. ''Governor Romney supports stem cell research, as do most people. However, the governor does not support the cloning of human embryos for experimentation."
Romney aides were incensed by a television ad paid for by businessman Chris Gabrieli, a former Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, which suggested that the governor opposes all forms of stem cell research.
Proponents of the bill say it is Romney who is confusing the issue by arguing that therapeutic cloning or somatic cell nuclear transfer is the creation of new human life.
The approach involves taking the nucleus of a cell such as skin, heart, or nerve cell and implanting it in a human egg cell that has had its own nucleus removed. The egg 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.
Because the egg is never fertilized, supporters say, scientists are not creating life. ''We're swapping a set of chromosomes, as opposed to creating a full set by uniting egg and sperm," said Senator Bruce E. Tarr, a Gloucester Republican who backs somatic cell nuclear transfer.
Another issue is the appropriate role for the state in overseeing and regulating stem cell research. In the current version of the Senate's bill, the Department of Public Health would license and regulate stem cell research. But because Romney controls that department, top Senate Democrats are reluctant to endorse such a role for the agency.
The House, which is less enthusiastic about stem cell research, wants to make sure that rules are as strong as possible.
Some female lawmakers, meanwhile, expressed fears that more embryonic stem cell research will create a demand for human eggs and potentially lead to the exploitation of women, especially poor women, who might be tempted to risk their health for the money they could get by selling eggs.
The lawmakers plan to offer an amendment to the bill this week that would ensure ''adequate informed consent" for women before donating eggs or undergoing fertilization treatments.
''The only way this process works is by first getting eggs, and the only people who produce eggs are women," said Representative Ellen Story, an Amherst Democrat. ''But the people who are making decisions on this bill have almost exclusively been men."
Raphael Lewis of the Globe staff and correspondent Janette Neuwahl contributed to this report. Greenberger can be reached at greenberger@globe.com. 