Stem cell bill deserves honest debate AJC Guest Editorial by DAVID J. SHAFER Published 03/07/06 Vital research stands to lift patients

In 1924, the Commonwealth of Virginia enacted a law to eliminate genetic disease from the population. An outgrowth of the so-called science of eugenics, it provided that the "feebleminded" (a broadly defined term which would include those suffering learning disabilities like dyslexia) were to be forcibly sterilized.

The constitutionality of this law was challenged in the name of Carrie Buck, a feebleminded 18-year-old who was ordered to have her fallopian tubes surgically removed after her 6-month-old baby gave the appearance of being feebleminded as well. Her lawyers argued that the law violated her fundamental rights as a human being.

The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed. In an infamous opinion written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., the court endorsed the pseudoscience of eugenics and its false promise of a healthier America, concluding its decision with this phrase: "Three generations of imbeciles are enough." Carrie Buck became one of the estimated 65,000 Americans who were forcibly sterilized under Virginia or other state laws over the next 50 years.

The scientists who advanced eugenic theories have now been discredited. But whether right or wrong on the science, how could our great-grandparents in the Virginia Legislature and on the U.S. Supreme Court have gone along with something so ghastly?

It is not so hard to imagine.

Legislation was introduced this year in the Georgia General Assembly, Senate Bill 537, that would have specifically allowed human cloning so long as the cloned embryos were killed and used for research and experimentation. The bill actually made it a felony to allow these clones to live, requiring the scientist to destroy them in order to avoid time in prison. In the ultimate irony, the sponsor of this bill called it a "human cloning ban."

The same crowd responsible for that stunt is now trying to block passage of legislation that I sponsored, Senate Bill 596, which advances medical research while drawing the line at human cloning.

SB 596 creates a network of blood and tissue banks to collect stem cells from the umbilical cord and placental tissues that are routinely thrown away after each newborn delivery. These tissues are rich in stem cells which may be used for scientific research and medical treatment. In fact, more than 65 treatments and cures have already been developed from these stem cells, and treatments for many more diseases are currently being studied.

In testimony before the Senate Science and Technology Committee, many of the state's leading doctors, scientists and health care organizations urged passage of SB 596, saying it would advance research, cure disease and alleviate human suffering.

Those same doctors, scientists and health care organizations endorsed the prohibition on human cloning, saying that it would redirect scarce resources from dubious science to the development of cures and treatments for injury and disease.

The proponents of human cloning, like the proponents of eugenics, hide behind the language of pseudoscience. They have misrepresented the intent and effect of SB 596, causing unfortunate confusion that has made honest discussion of this issue difficult. Even worse, they have frightened some of the very people the bill was drafted to help.

Unlike the Virginia law 80 years ago that sterilized Carrie Buck in the name of science or the Senate bill this year that allowed the creation and destruction of human clones in the name of research, Senate Bill 596 is a good bill that will advance medical research and alleviate human suffering.

David Shafer is Chairman of the Senate Science and Technology Committee.

Visit David's official State Senate webpage at:
http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2005_06/senate/shaferbio.htm

To view a copy of David's Senate Bill, Delivering the Cure Act of 2006, visit:
http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2005_06/sum/sb596.htm