Stem cell concerns resurface

In a procedural move, a minority report was offered for consideration on the House floor regarding a bill that would establish state policy for stem cell research.

The report, offered by Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Delano), came during a routine procedure of approving committee and division reports.

A minority report must come from a member of the committee where the bill originated. It is a way for the minority to offer a proposal for consideration on the House floor.

It was laid on the table by a vote of 68-62. A motion by Rep. Paul Kohls (R-Victoria) to re-refer the bill to the House Finance Committee did not pass, and the bill now awaits action on the House floor.

HF34/SF100*, sponsored by Rep. Phyllis Kahn (DFL-Mpls) and Sen. Richard Cohen (DFL-St. Paul), would permit the University of Minnesota to conduct stem cell research, and provides policy for distribution of any remaining embryos following a fertility treatment.

The bill would also make it a misdemeanor to sell embryonic cells or fetal tissue, and a felony to clone a human being. It was approved by the House Public Safety and Civil Justice Committee Feb. 14.

Emmer said that recent research has shown that adult skin cell research is more effective than embryonic stem cell research.

“Stem cell research is years away, adult skin cell research is here today,” he said. Experimenting with stem cell research is bad ethics and bad science.”

Kahn said that if the minority report were adopted, fertility treatments, that have helped so many Minnesotans in the past, would be very difficult to do. “You are telling them that they are wrong, and the doctors they are wrong,” she said.