Massachusetts Legislature Overrides Governor’s Veto of Stem Cell Bill
By Liz Townsend
The Massachusetts Senate and House have overridden Gov. Mitt Romney’s veto of an embryonic stem cell bill that authorizes the creation of tiny human beings who would then be killed to extract cells for research purposes. Romney vetoed the bill May 27 after the legislature rejected amendments he proposed.
Romney’s amendments, sent to the legislature May 12, one week after the bill was first sent to the governor’s desk, would have banned all cloning, defined life as beginning at conception, limited compensation to women who donate eggs for cloning, and tightened restrictions on egg donations, according to the Associated Press (AP). These amendments were defeated in both houses May 19.
“How utterly sad and what a moral outrage it is that a legislative body would deny the right to life of the very innocent ones it seeks to create,” said Massachusetts Citizens for Life President Peg Whitbread. “I believe we have reached rock bottom of the culture of death’s slippery slope.”
The bill authorizes “somatic cell nuclear transfer,” which creates a human embryo through cloning. These embryos would have to be destroyed before they reach 14 days old so researchers could extract stem cells for use in research.
“Unfortunately, the new law denies scientific reality by defining the beginning of human life as implantation, not conception,” said Daniel Avila, associate director of Policy & Research for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference. “This means open hunting season on embryos produced in the laboratory.”
“The lethal connection between cloning for research purposes and harvesting of embryonic stem cells can neither be denied nor wished away,” according to a March statement from the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts.
The legislation also establishes a Biomedical Research Advisory Council to oversee embryonic stem cell research and requires the Department of Public Health to register research institutes, according to the Telegram & Gazette.
The legislators included a provision that would not allow the public health department to implement policies that would prevent embryonic stem cell research. The department “shall not propose or implement any regulation or rule which would have the purpose or effect of inhibiting, delaying, or otherwise obstructing research or clinical applications proposed or lawfully undertaken” according to the bill’s provisions.
Researchers in Massachusetts are already using embryonic stem cells, and the new bill is intended to attract more companies to conduct research in the state. Although it does not contain any funding commitments from the state, the bill’s supporters said that providing money for more research is the legislature’s next goal.
“From my perspective, job one was to make sure we created the best regulatory environment that we could, and that’s what we’re doing,” said Sen. Bruce E. Tarr (R-Gloucester), a supporter of the bill, according to the Berkshire Eagle. “When it’s done, I think you will see some level of discussion about an investment from the state.”
Both houses of the legislature originally passed their versions of the bill by large margins. After a conference committee agreed on a final bill, the Senate approved it by a vote of 34-2 April 26, and the House approved it May 4 by a 119-38 vote. Needing two-thirds of each body to override a veto (27 and 107 votes, respectively), the bill was passed over the governor’s objections May 31 by 35-2 in the Senate and 112-42 in the House, the AP reported.
Pro-lifers condemned the bill and the legislators’ desire to establish an embryonic stem cell research industry at the expense of human beings. “Passage of this legislation is a sellout to unethical science and bio-tech firms at the sheer cost of innocent human life,” said Whitbread. “We can’t call this progress when the life of an embryo is extinguished for experimental purposes that most likely will lead nowhere by all evidence and indications.”