Adult stem cell research funded under measure

Published Thursday, April 20, 2006

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - Lawmakers haven’t been willing to appropriate money from a special fund to support life sciences research, but if they ever do, some of it could have to go to adult stem cell research, including umbilical cord blood research.

The House gave first-round approval yesterday to a bill that would require a fraction of the money paid to the state by tobacco companies that weren’t part of the initial national tobacco settlement to be devoted to adult stem cell research.

Rep. Jim Lembke, a vocal embryonic stem cell research opponent, said the many important advances and medical applications stemming from adult stem cell research deserve a guaranteed funding stream.

"There is a lot of misinformation that people on my side of this issue are against all stem cell research, and that’s just not true," said Lembke, R-St. Louis.

The money that would have to go to adult stem cell research would come from a fund created under a 2003 law that required 25 percent of the state tobacco settlement proceeds to go toward life sciences research.

Lawmakers, however, have thus far decided not to spend any of the $38.5 million in the Life Sciences Trust Fund over fears that the state would be forced to fund somatic cell nuclear transfer and other types of embryonic stem cell research if a constitutional amendment passed to guarantee stem cell research legal under federal law could also occur in Missouri.

Lembke’s bill would require about $3 million of the $38.5 million in the fund to be used for adult stem cell research.

Lawmakers have largely stayed on the sidelines of the stem cell research debate as supporters have continued gathering petition signatures and raising millions of dollars to back the proposed constitutional amendment.

Although Democrats have been trying throughout the session to trigger a stem cell debate through an assortment of amendments offered to other bills, Lembke’s bill marks one of the first times stem cell research has come up on the House floor this session.

Rep. Bob Johnson questioned the timing of talking about stem cell research at this point.

"Shouldn’t we just wait for the people to decide what they want to do with stem research in November?" asked Johnson, R-Lee’s Summit.

Lembke said residents need to know that it’s possible to do "ethical" stem cell research and still exclude embryonic stem cell research.

"Adult stem cell research doesn’t necessitate the creation of a human embryo and the destruction of that embryo for research," he said.