House backs funds ban for stem-cell research

• By MARSHA SHULER
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Apr 16, 2008 - Page: 6A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The House quickly signed off Tuesday on legislation that would impose a Louisiana ban on use of public funds for most embryonic stem-cell research.

The House voted 90 for and 9 against approving the legislation being pushed by anti-abortion groups. Six House members did not vote.

There was no debate.

The issue earlier sparked emotional testimony in a House committee from a father who pleaded with lawmakers not to shut the door on research that could find a cure for his daughter’s diabetes.

House Bill 370 by Rep. Cameron Henry, R-Jefferson, would prohibit use of state or federal funds for human cloning.

But human cloning is not the issue in the debate.

The fight is over provisions of the bill that would stop use of embryonic stem cells for medical research aimed at finding cures for diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson’s.

Proponents of HB370 argue that human life is destroyed as part of the stem cell research which they say so far has yielded no breakthroughs on the disease fighting front.

Opponents say that argument is ridiculous because human life is not created in a Petri dish.

Before the vote, Henry — in a concession to medical researchers — got the House to amend the bill to allow use of federal funds for research using embryonic stem cell lines approved for federal funding prior to Aug. 9, 2001.

Those are the existing stem cell lines on which the Bush administration signed off.

Pennington Biomedical Research Center executive director Dr. Claude Bouchard had urged the exception to the funding ban so that Louisiana would not be at a disadvantage in competition for federally-funded research projects.

Henry told House members the legislation has the backing of Gov. Bobby Jindal.