Our Views: New barriers for science?
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One of the significant investments that Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Legislature made in Louisiana’s future was a $50 million expansion of facilities and research funding at LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
That’s a decent amount of money, and if it is followed up with similar investments during the next couple of years, large numbers of research jobs — not to mention potential spinoffs of companies that exploit Pennington discoveries — can be expected to be created in our state.
But the Legislature’s potential embrace of restrictions on stem-cell research could act as a barrier to Pennington recruiting scientists of the caliber needed to be competitive in the much-prized sector of biomedical research.
The Associated Press interviewed one Pennington scientist, Jeff Gimble.
His research is focused on noncontroversial research using stem cells from fat tissue.
But he worried that the stem-cell bill now working its way through the Legislature could shut the door on future research.
It could hinder his ability to recruit assistants and win funding.
“Even if that’s not directly affecting my work, it’s going to directly affect my ability to recruit and ultimately obtain funding resources and publish in a competitive manner in what’s becoming an increasingly competitive area of science,” he told the AP.
We are worried too, and hope that lawmakers will make no state law that exceeds the federal restrictions on stem-cell research that were worked out between President Bush and Congress in 2001.
The research in embryonic stem cells could one day help provide treatments or cures for dread diseases.
The Legislature’s intervention in this area would be counterproductive.
It would be best if the Legislature would leave this subject alone entirely.
Should Congress and a new administration loosen the federal restrictions — a real possibility — any state law enacted now could be a problem at Pennington and other research campuses in the state, because the federal rules might change.
Louisiana government has tons of problems.
The most pressing of those problems is not the ethical implications of stem-cell research.
