Hi, Siobhan, Good to see you.
How are all of you doing in your new surroundings?
Can't the Catholic get after McGreedy? He's a Catholic. This is a no-no for anyone.
The 5 Bishops placed an ad in their Diocesan Newspapers and that's about it. Many Catholics don't go to mass regularly and those that do often don't purchase and read their diocesan newspapers, nothing was mandated for bulletin inserts or from the pulpits. The ad's were never placed in the secular newspapers. In NJ, as you are aware, a homosexual union bill was passed by the assembly, NO Catholic politicians were repudiated for voting for this anti-Catholic bill. NOT ONE. Let's face it he's a democrat, like many Catholics, and the Bishops don't want to rock the boat, they too are democrats as well as many priests, nuns and brothers and they love the big grants the politicians bring back to their districts and dioceses for Catholic Charities, Group homes, soup kitchens, etc.
You've seen the posts about Cardinal McCarrick and Georgetown University and know that he is allowing the practicing of using aborted embryos and stem cell use for resarch. It's a terrible mess.
Governor plans $6.5M for stem-cell centerJersey would become first state to finance research
Sunday, February 22, 2004
BY ROBERT SCHWANEBERG AND KASI ADDISON
Star-Ledger Staff
In a bid to make New Jersey a center for medical breakthroughs, Gov. James E. McGreevey will propose spending $6.5 million for the creation of a stem-cell research institute when he unveils his budget Tuesday.
If the proposal survives legislative review, it will make New Jersey the first state to use taxpayer money for a line of research that is both highly promising and intensely controversial.
The New Brunswick-based institute, to be managed jointly by Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, would be financed at the outset with a $6.5 million state grant and $3.5 million in private money, a McGreevey administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday.
The plan is projected to cost $ 50 million in both public and private funds over five years, with half of that money earmarked for construction costs. The remainder would pay for research and the recruitment of top scientists.
"This will demonstrate that New Jersey is open and welcome for both researchers and companies to work in groundbreaking medical treatment," the administration official said.
Earlier this year, McGreevey signed legislation making New Jersey the second state, after California, to officially encourage embryonic stem-cell research. But the measure came under sharp debate, passing the Assembly by a single vote.
Moreover, it was directly at odds with the position taken by many other states and by the Bush administration, which has severely restricted federal funding for such research.
Yet the potential of stem-cell research is so great, advocates say, that it should not be suppressed.
"The idea that we can replace dead, dying and deranged cells means we are on the threshold of a whole new approach to regenerative and rehabilitative medicine, and it affects a multitude of diseases," said Ira Black, the co-author of the proposal to create the institute.
Black, director of the stem-cell research center UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, said the New Jersey research center would represent "a dawning of a new day in medicine."
The research, which involves the removal of stem cells from human embryos, holds the key to developing cures for Parkinson's disease, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injuries and a host of other maladies, Black and other researchers say.
But because the research can involve destroying a human embryo -- and in some cases, a cloned human embryo -- it has been denounced as unethical by the state's Catholic bishops and by anti-abortion groups.
President Bush's regulation limits federal funding to research on only those stem cells that already had been extracted from embryos before the measure was enacted in August 2001. The regulation still permits federal funding of adult stem-cell research.
Opponents of the governor's plan, first reported in the New York Times, point to a recent announcement by South Korean researchers that they have successfully created a cloned human embryo before destroying it and harvesting its stem cells.
Marie Tasy, director for New Jersey Right to Life, vowed to "work very hard to get the funding for embryonic stem-cell research removed from the state budget."
"Most people find it morally objectionable to have their tax dollars used to create human life for the sole purpose of destruction," Tasy said. "I would hope the people in New Jersey would oppose this."
Assemblyman Neil Cohen (D-Union), who led the fight for the stem-cell research bill in the lower house, yesterday hailed McGreevey's commitment of state funding as "visionary."
"It will send a message around the world that New Jersey is committed to stem-cell research," Cohen said.
He dismissed claims that the bill would allow researchers to clone a human embryo, implant it into a woman, and abort it to harvest its organs shortly before birth, saying anyone who implanted a cloned embryo would face criminal prosecution.
The New Jersey stem-cell research law officially encourages the same technique the Korean researchers used, which is sometimes called "therapeutic cloning." However, it makes it a crime to create a human baby using cloning. In between the creation of a cloned embryo and the birth of a living human clone, the law leaves a huge gray area.
Sensitive to the controversy likely to be ignited by the governor's proposal, researchers affiliated with the project stressed yesterday they have no interest in cloning people.
"We want to make it crystal clear that no one wants to create new human beings," Black said.
The aim, insisted Kenneth Breslauer, dean of Rutgers' Life Sciences Department and a colleague of Black on the project, is simply to better treat ailments that kill or maim millions of people.
"We are talking about basic research for a serious biomedical advantage," Breslauer said. "We are talking about curing diseases."
Black said that if people had a greater understanding of the research's potential, support for it would be far more widespread.
And he cautioned that failure to pursue stem-cell research could drive breakthroughs -- and some of the best scientists -- to other countries.
"If the U.S. doesn't assume this role, the scientific advancements will go elsewhere, and so will the talent," Black said. "Doing nothing is devastating to this country's interests."Staff writers Mark Mueller and Joe Donohue contributed to this report.
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| NJRTL Statement on McGreevey Budget Announcement of $.6.5 million for embryonic/cloning research |
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New Jersey Right to Life
113 North Avenue West
Cranford, NJ 07016
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Marie Tasy
Public & Legislative Affairs Director
(732) 846-2000
NJRTL RESPONDS TO MCGREEVEY BUDGET ANNOUNCEMENT OF $6.5 MILLION TO ATTRACT CLONING SCIENTISTS TO NJ.
McGreevey’s Push For Funding Human Fetal Farms Exposes Campaign of Deception and Ignites Call for Repeal of Law; Accountability
February 22, 2004--
Yesterday’s NY Times reported that Governor McGreevey inserted $6.5 million into the proposed budget to fund human embryonic cloning research authorized under NJ Law A2840/S1909. “What we’re talking about here is farming humans through birth for destructive research in the state of NJ.* If this isn’t repulsive, I don’t know what is,” said Marie Tasy, Public & Legislative Affairs Director for New Jersey Right to Life who called for a swift repeal of the law. “The truth has finally c ome out. This law is an unprecedented assault on humanity and does authorize the creation of new human beings through cloning (somatic cell nuclear transplantation). What’s more, the law authorizes the implantation and harvesting of cloned human beings as stated in the definition of cloning, ‘through the egg, embryo, fetal and newborn stages into a new individual human being,’” said Marie Tasy, Public & Legislative Affairs Director for New Jersey Right to Life. She noted that ”somatic cell nuclear transplantation” was the same technique used to clone Dolly the sheep. “It is bad enough that Governor McGreevey sold out humanity and ignored the will of the people to do the bidding of the Biotech industry, he is now trying to force this immoral research down the throats of the taxpayers,” said Tasy. “This is unconscionable.”
On February 13, one day after press reports revealed that South Korea scientists had created human embryos through this same process (somatic cell nuclear transplantation), Governor Jim McGreevey issued a press release asking his HHS Commissioner for help to promote embryonic cloning research within New Jersey’s borders. “Both the Press Release and the funding announcement serve as a brazen admission that the bill McGreevey signed into law on January 4, 2004 (A2840/S1909) DOES indeed allow human cloning and demonstrates his mad zeal to draw media attention and cloning scientists to New Jersey at any cost as long as it is at taxpayer expense,” said Tasy
The South Korean experiment used 242 eggs, obtained by superovulating 16 female volunteers (that's 15 eggs per woman on the average). The donor cell and the egg were obtained from the same woman each time so the clones were of the women who had donated the eggs. 213 embryos divided to the 2-cell stage; 30 reached blastocyst stage; only 20 inner cell masses were successfully obtained by killing the embryos; only one embryo stem cell line was successfully established. Human embryonic stem cell research has never been used in human clinical trials.
”It is shameful that NJ is proceeding on a course that will exploit women and create human life to destroy it when adult and cord blood stem cells are accessible and are being successfully used to treat human patients,” said Tasy. “These stem cells are already being used to treat cancers, autoimmune diseases, anemias, immunodeficiencies, bone/cartilage deformities, corneal scarring, Parkinson's, and stroke, and to repair cardiac tissue after heart attack, grow new blood vessels, and grow skin.”
Tasy said, “Taxpayers should not be forced to fund this radical, immoral grisly experimentation on human beings. They need to repeal this unprecedented law and limit research to adult stem cells which is unanimously supported by the public. Funding should instead be allocated for adult stem cell therapies which are already curing people.”
“Througho ut the legislative debate, Governor McGreevey and Democratic leaders repeatedly insisted the law did not authorize human cloning. They owe it to the people of NJ and future generations to go back and repeal this law before any assaults on humanity occur. They also owe the people of New Jersey an apology for sneaking this bill through during lame duck session and irresponsibly and boldly denying the plain truth that NJRTL and experts in the field of law and bioethics made available during the legislative process. As more NJ citizens become aware of the loopholes in the NJ law that allow these egregious abuses against humanity, they are going to be horrified and will demand answers,” said Tasy.
*Critics of the law claim there are flaws in the bill, specifically the sections that ban human cloning and prohibit the sale of embryos or fetal tissue for profit. They say huge loopholes have been created by carefully worded language. For instance, the law defines cloning of a human to be "cultivating a cell with genetic material through the egg, embryo, fetal, and newborn stages into a new human individual."
Critics say such language, specifically the word "through," will allow researchers not only to create the embryo, but to grow it into the fetal stage before terminating. And although the law prohibits the sale of embryos or fetal tissue, it exempts "reasonable payment for the removal, processing, disposal, preservation, quality control, storage, transplantation, or implantation of embryonic or cadaveric fetal tissue."(Jan 5, 2004 Bergen Record).
But in one controversial aspect, the law approved by McGreevey and the Legislature defines "cloning of a human being" as the replication of a human individual by cultivating a cell with genetic material through the egg, embryo, fetal and newborn stages into a new human individual. Detractors contend this is too vague and could allow a cloned baby to be born then killed for research. (Glouce ster Times, 2/14/04, Express Times, 2/15/04).
The New Jersey stem-cell research law officially encourages the same technique the Korean researchers used, which is sometimes called "therapeutic cloning." However, it makes it a crime to create a human baby using cloning. In between the creation of a cloned embryo and the birth of a living human clone, the law leaves a huge gray area.(Star Ledger, 02/22/04).
The pending legislation expressly authorizes the creation of new human beings by cloning and, perhaps unintentionally, their cultivation from the zygote stage through the newborn stage for the purpose of harvesting what the bills themselves refer to as “cadaveric” fetal tissue. Please pause to consider whose cadaver the tissue is to be derived from. It is the cadaver of a distinct member of the species homo sapiens – a human being – who would be brought into being by cloning, and presumably, implanted and permitted to develop to the desired stage of physical maturati on for the purpose of being killed for the harvesting of his or her tissues.
(01/27/03Letter to Governor McGreevey from four Members of the President’s Council on Bioethics on A2840/S1909 which is now NJ law). This letter was made available to the Assembly Health Committee.
In fact, the legislation authorizes commercial traffic in the body parts of human beings “cultivated” (the bill’s word) up to the moment of birth. The bills explicitly authorize the creation of human embryos by genetic replication or cloning. They authorize “cultivation” of such embryos at least until birth. Since the only way to “cultivate” embryos so long is by implantation in a woman’s womb, the bills expressly authorize payment for “implantation” and “transplantation” of embryos. The bills make “cloning” a crime of the first degree. “Cloning” is defined in the proposed legislation, however, in an unprecedented fashion: “cultivating” the cell “through the egg, embryo, fetal and newborn stages in to a new human individual.”.Putting aside the shocking suggestion that New Jersey law will not recognize someone as a human individual until after he or she survives “the newborn stages,” this definition means that “cloning” would not occur, and no crime would be committed , before the child was “through” – that is past or beyond or done with – the”newborn stage.” “Newborn” is not a legal term of art, and the bills provide no definition of it.
(01/07/03 Analysis of A2840/S1909 from Gerard Bradley, Professor of Law at Notre Dame University, et al). This analysis was provided to the Assembly Health Committee.
Additional resources will be made available upon request.
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| Immediate Action Needed - Call Your NJ Senators on A-437, Bioetech Permit Acceleration Process |
| Immediate Action Needed on A-437, Biotech Bill Moves to NJ Senate |
Take Action! |
| Urge your NJ Senators to Vote "No" on A-437 |
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March 9, 2004
Urgent – Immediate Action Needed on Bill A437. Released from Senate Economic Growth Committee on March 8, 2004 - Awaits vote in NJ Senate
A437 was released from the Senate Economic Growth Committee on March 8,2004. Members of the Committee who voted to release the bill were: Senator Ray Lesniak (D), Glen Cunnigham (D), Martha Bark (R), Joseph Kyrillos (R), and Joseph Vitale (D). It was previously approved by the Assembly on Thursday, February 5, 2004. To see how the Assembly voted, please go to our Legislative Action Center. In short, this bill paves the way, and shows preferential treatment to, the NJ Biotech Industry so they can perform the ghastly human cloning experiments authorized under the Clone and Kill bill signed into law by Governor McGreevey on January 4, 2004. It should be opposed.
The bill would authorize the creation of a Biotechnology Permit Acceleration Task Force within the Department of Environmental Protection which would be undertaken in consultation with the NJ Commission on Science and Technology and the NJ Commerce and Economic Growth Commission responsible for the development of rules and regulations designed to shorten the time period for persons involved in biotechnology related activities to obtain permits from the department, for the coordination of the review and approval of permits for biotechnology activities in various divisions with the department and for the development of policies to decrease the application and review costs imposed by the department on persons who apply for permits for biotechnology related activities.
Action needed:
Immediately call and email your state Senator. Urge them to oppose A437. You can email your legislators through this page. If you do not know who your state Senator is, call the Office of Legislative Services at 1-800-792-8630. Thank you.
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A bank roll for stem-cell research
$3B endowment is envisioned to fund newest front on war on disease
Saturday, March 13, 2004BY ROBERT SCHWANEBERG
Star-Ledger Staff
A state lawmaker announced plans yesterday for a nonprofit foundation with an ambitious goal: raising $3 billion to make New Jersey the epicenter of stem-cell research in the United States, in hopes of speeding the development of cures for various diseases.
Assemblyman Neil Cohen (D-Union), who announced the plans yesterday in a conference call with reporters, said he has already gotten "a tremendous response" from financial institutions, universities, medical researchers and the state's pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. They will discuss it further at a "stem-cell summit" to be held this spring, he said.
Last December, Cohen won a hard-fought battle in the Assembly for passage of a law making New Jersey the second state, after California, to officially encourage stem-cell research, including experiments using stem cells harvested from embryos.
The Catholic Church and New Jersey Right to Life have denounced embryonic stem-cell research on the grounds that it destroys a human life. President Bush has sharply limited embryonic stem-cell research using federal funds.
Cohen said the new law paved the way for New Jersey to become a leader in stem-cell research, and what is needed now is a way to pool money and brainpower. He said the stem-cell research endowment fund would do both.
Gary Friedman, a transplant surgeon assisting Cohen in the endeavor, said, "It's almost like the Manhattan Project," referring to the collaborative research effort that developed the atomic bomb for the United States.
"You want to put together the most resources with the best research minds," said Friedman, who also heads the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Morristown Memorial Hospital.
Told later of Cohen's proposal, Ira Black, director of the stem-cell research center at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, called it "inspired."
"Stem-cell research has the potential to change the face of medicine in the 21st century," Black said. "It is not simply a new treatment for one or even a group of diseases. It is an entirely new approach to medicine and illness. We hope it will be possible to replace dying and dysfunctional cells in a variety of diseases." He said they could include Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, stroke, diabetes, heart disease, spinal-cord injuries "and one could go on."
Friedman added that stem-cell research has been "exploding" since 1998, but an enormous collaborative effort will be needed to convert that research into cures.
Marie Tasy, director of public and legislative affairs for New Jersey Right to Life, said research using "adult" stem cells from umbilical cord blood, bone marrow and numerous other sources is both promising and ethically sound. But she said embryonic stem cell research is immoral because it either destroys a human embryo or creates one -- in some cases through cloning -- for the purpose of harvesting its stem cells.
"That is a path we should not go down," Tasy said, adding that embryonic stem-cell research is unproven and raises "false hope" in patients and their families.
Cohen said the endowment fund has yet to raise any money and would need about $250 million to get started. But the ultimate goal, he said, is to meet or exceed the $3 billion that Californians have proposed raising for stem-cell research in that state through a bond issue. In Massachusetts, Harvard University has announced plans for a multimillion-dollar stem-cell research center to be established with private funding.
Gov. James E. McGreevey has proposed spending $6.5 million of state money for a stem-cell research institute to be jointly managed by Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
Cohen said he hopes to raise far more for the stem-cell research endowment fund from financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies and private foundations. By taking only private funds, he said, the endowment would remain free to fund all types of stem-cell research, including the controversial embryonic variety.
MAJORITY OF NJ RESIDENTS OPPOSE GOVERNOR’S PROPOSAL TO USE TAXPAYER MONEY TO FUND STEM CELL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
FUNDING SHOULD BE STRIPPED FROM BUDGET
March 18, 2004--
A recent Quinnipiac University Poll conducted between February 29 and March 7, 2004 found that a majority of New Jersey voters disagree with Governor James McGreevey's $50 million proposal to fund a New Jersey institute for human stem cell research.
Quinnipiac surveyed 1,210 New Jersey registered voters, and found that 48 percent of those surveyed disagreed with the Governor's plan, while only 42 percent agreed with the idea.
Governor McGreevey proposed spending $6.5 million of state money for a stem-cell research institute in the FY 2004 budget, which would be a collaborative effort run by Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
Marie Tasy, director of public and legislative affairs for New Jersey Right to Life, said this result shows McGreevey is on the wrong track. “The people of NJ clearly want us to focus our efforts and resources on research using ‘adult’ stem cells from umbilical cord blood, bone marrow and other sources which has proven to be successful and is ethically sound.” The Governor’s proposal, however, includes taxpayer money to perform embryonic stem cell research which relies on the destruction of existing human embryos as well as the creation of new human beings through the embryo, fetal and newborn stages.
Tasy said the embryonic stem cell research can open up "a new exploitation of women," noting that South Korean scientists super-ovulated 16 women to obtain 242 eggs, which resulted in only one stem cell line.
Somatic nuclear transplantation (SCNT) is expressly authorized under the law McGreevey signed in early January. SCNT is the technique used to create human embryos as well as create human clones and is the same method used to clone Dolly the sheep.
Tasy pointed out that Dolly was the result after 300 failed attempts, resulting in miscarriages and malformed offspring. Ultimately, the "successful" result, Dolly, aged too rapidly and had to be euthanized.
"While this may or may not be acceptable for animals, it certainly should not be acceptable for human children, said Tasy. "There is no reason to exploit women and create human life to destroy it when adult and cord blood stem cells are accessible and are being successfully used to treat human patients."
The law McGreevey signed in January is the most radical ever. Under the law’s language, human cloning for experimentation, as well as the allowance of "reasonable payment'' for embryonic or cadaveric fetal tissue production, implantation, transplantation and preservation costs, is now legal up until newborn stages.
"Sponsors of the bill, the Biotech Industry and the Governor, engaged in a highly deceptive misinformation campaign claiming that the research on human embryos would be limited to those already existing from left over fertility treatments and boldly denied they would attempt to publicly fund it," said Tasy. “They have deliberately misled the taxpayers of NJ and the evidence shows increasing opposition to this misguided proposal and the heavy-handed tactics employed by Governor McGreevey and his agents.” Tasy called for the funding to be stripped from the state budget. “Taxpayers should not be forced to pay for this highly objectionable research that authorizes the creation and destruction of human life through the newborn stages.”
March 22, 2004 N.J. on quest to lead nation in stem-cell research
By PETE McALEER Statehouse Bureau, (609) 292-4935
TRENTON - First through a new law, and now with the promise of state funds, New Jersey is positioning itself to become the national leader in the controversial field of embryonic stem-cell research.
The state's quest, led by Gov. James E. McGreevey, also puts New Jersey at the forefront of a national debate with science on one side and religion on the other.
Stem cells, described as the body's building blocks, have the unique potential to develop into other cells. Scientists hope to use the cells to repair body parts and find cures for diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Anti-abortion groups, along with the Catholic Church, staunchly oppose the research because it involves the destruction of human embryos, and they fear it will lead to human cloning.
The federal government, citing the same moral argument, has severely restricted funding for embryonic stem-cell research. While most states have stayed out of the fray, McGreevey signed a law late last year that made New Jersey the second state, after California, to endorse the practice as a way of welcoming researchers.
McGreevey hopes to take that goal a step further this summer. His budget includes a proposal to spend $6.5 million to help open a Stem Cell Institute in New Brunswick. The institute would involve the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Rutgers University and would seek to raise $50 million in public and private funds.
In a letter written last week to Genetic Engineering News, a trade publication for the biotech industry, McGreevey invited biomedical and pharmaceutical companies to "come to New Jersey."
"Take advantage of our outstanding resources, and the investments our state government is making for the life sciences," McGreevey said. "Reward our faith in what you do. Find cures for the incurable."
Efforts are also under way to raise $3 billion in private money to fund a cyberspace "bio-med zone" that would allow stem-cell researchers to pool resources and share information. Assemblyman Neil Cohen, D-Union, who sponsored the state's stem-cell research law, said a "stem-cell summit" will be held this spring to raise money for a stem-cell endowment fund from financial institutions, private investors, biotech companies, pharmaceutical companies and other groups.
The endowment fund would help New Jersey outpace California, which plans to ask voters to approve $3 million for stem-cell research in November. Harvard University in Massachusetts has also announced plans to raise $100 million in private funding for a stem-cell research center.
David Beck, president of the Coriell Institute in Camden, said stem-cell research is "as hot an area as it can get in science." The state's support, he said, could make the difference in finding cures.
"From a scientist's point of view, this couldn't be more exciting," Beck said. "There's an enormous opportunity for discovery and progress. It's an area where the state can really step out and shine."
Anti-abortion groups agree New Jersey is distinguishing itself, albeit in an ominous way. After McGreevey announced his budget plans, New Jersey Right to Life Public Affairs Director Marie Tasy called the proposal to fund a stem-cell research center unconscionable.
"It is bad enough that Gov. McGreevey sold out humanity and ignored the will of the people to do the bidding of the Biotech industry," Tasy said. "He is now trying to force this immoral research down the throats of the taxpayers."
Tasy said New Jersey's stem-cell law leaves a loophole that allows the cloning of humans to harvest stem cells. She says there is no evidence embryonic stem-cell research works while adult stem cells, which rely on other sources such as umbilical-cord blood and bone marrows, have been more successful.
Right to Life also points to a Quinnipiac University poll, released March 16, which shows 48 percent disagreed with the governor's decision to fund stem-cell research, while only 42 percent approved.
The philosophical divide between supporters and opponents runs as deep as the abortion issue.
"If you firmly believe that life begins at the time of fertilization of the egg, then embryonic stem cell will never be acceptable to you," Beck said.
Given that that the human embryos are left over from in-vitro fertilization procedures and destined for destruction, Beck says the choice for him is simple. Scientists deserve a chance to see if they can use the research to save lives.
"How dare we say some potential cure is off-limits," he said.
To e-mail Pete McAleer at The Press:
PMcAleer@pressofac.com
| McGreevey Signs Agreement to Fund Stem Cell Institute Before Legislature Approves Expenditure |
| May 13, 2004 Dear Pro-Life Friends: Yesterday, Governor McGreevey hosted a stem cell forum to sign an agreement to fund a Stem Cell Institute to be jointly run by UMDNJ and Rutgers University. A Demonstration was held outside the forum to protest the use of tax money for clone and kill "research." Despite protestations to the contrary, the NJ law McGreevey signed DOES indeed authorize human cloning and fetal farming through the newborn stage. Please click on the links provided below to read our Press Release and the article by Peggy Noonan which appeared in today's Wall Street Journal. Please continue to contact your State Senator and two Assembly Members who represent you in Trenton and tell them you don't want your tax dollars used for this purpose. The Legislature has not yet voted on the state budget. This vote usually occurs on the last legislative session day, which the current legislative calendar indicates will be Thursday, June 24. If you don't know who your state legislators are, you can go to NJRTL's Legislative Action Center on our website or call the Office of Legislative Services at 1-800-792-8630. Please check our website to read what experts have to say about the NJ cloning law (A2840/S1909) and for the latest legislative updates and pro-life news. NJRTL website: http://www.njrtl.org/ Marie Tasy , Public & Legislative Affairs Director, New Jersey Right to Life, NJRTL Press Release: http://www.politicsnj.com/njrtl051304.htm Article by Peggy Noonan: http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110005069 |
| Time To Act Now on Budget: No Funding for Clone and Kill Research |
| NJ Citizens: Contact State Legislators to Oppose McGreevey's push to use taxpayer funds for radical clone and kill research |
Take Action! |
| Oppose efforts to fund the cloning and killing of humans |
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Despite opposition from NJ citizens, Governor McGreevey has inserted $6.5 million in the state budget to build the NJ Stem Cell Research Institute which will perform research authorized under NJ Bills A2840/S1909. This appropriation which has to be funded by NJ taxpayers will have to be approved by both Houses of the Legislature by the end of June. A March, 2004 Quinnipiac Poll showed that by a 48% plurality, NJ voters do not want their tax dollars used to fund this Stem Cell Institute. Under NJ law, researchers are now permitted to create new human embryos through the same cloning technique (somatic cell nuclear transplantation)used to create Dolly the Sheep and employed in February by South Korean scientists. In fact, the day after news reports revealed that South Korean scientists had created human embryos through this technique, NJ Governor McGreevey sent a letter to his Health and Senior Services Commissioner, asking him to promote this research. A myriad of studies documented in peer reviewed journals as well as on-going research have demonstrated successful results in curing many illnesses and diseases through the use of adult stem cells. Despite the mounting evidence that cures lie in adult stem cells and not in human embryonic, Governor McGreevey is determined to use taxpayer's money to pursue an unethical and immoral path. Read NJRTL's Press Release below.
NJRTL's Press Release
Peggy Noonan's Column about NJ law
Center for Public Integrity: Bioetch Pushes Agenda in States
Act now. Contact your State Senator and two Assembly members ASAP. Urge them to oppose this funding and instead support funding for adult stem cell research only. You can send an email to both your State Senators and two Assembly members directly from this page by going to the "Take Action" button on top of this page. To see how your state legislators voted on A2840/S1909, please click on the sidebar link to our webpage, http://www.njrtl.org.
See NY Times article below.
February 21, 2004
New Jersey Governor Puts Stem Cell Research in Budget Plan
By LAURA MANSNERUS
NY Times
RENTON, Feb. 20 - Gov. James E. McGreevey will use his budget message next Tuesday to announce a plan to make New Jersey the first state to finance research on human embryonic stem cells, officials in the governor's office said Friday.
In most states, official efforts have focused on how to limit such research, which opponents view as unethical, and President Bush has cut off federal financing for most projects.
But Mr. McGreevey is setting a different course. Last month, he signed largely symbolic legislation authorizing stem cell research, maki ng New Jersey the second state, after California, to support it explicitly. The budget would take the next step: providing $6.5 million for a research institute, to be run by Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
Mr. McGreevey's plan calls for $50 million over five years, including both state and private funds, for the institute, which would be built in New Brunswick.
Dr. Wise Young, chairman of cell biology and neuroscience at Rutgers and an author of the governor's plan, said he and other researchers hoped to recruit about a dozen of "the best stem cell scientists in the world," which he estimated would require about $25 million. "Everybody understands that because of current federal restrictions on stem cell funding, if you don't put money behind it, it's not going to change very much," Dr. Young said.
But, as the recent development of human embryos from cloned cells by South Korean scientists has sh own, religious and ethical concerns surround stem cell research. Opponents say the research is unethical because it starts with the destruction of a human embryo.
Because of such concerns, President Bush in 2001 ordered the National Institutes of Health not to provide any funds for research on human embryonic cells except those colonies, or "lines," already cultivated at research centers.
Researchers and advisers to the governor said Friday that they knew of no state other than New Jersey that directly supports stem cell research. But California has a lead in research talent and private funds, having attracted both when it enacted its stem cell research legislation in 2002
Several states are scrambling to become centers for biotechnology companies and university researchers in stem cell research. Many expect that it will eventually transform medicine.
In California, a ballot initiative now under way would raise $3 billion ove r 10 years for stem cell research.
Stem cells are found in human embryos, umbilical cords and placentas. The stem cells harvested from human embryos can be induced to grow into any kind of tissue in the body, and researchers believe that by studying them, they can learn how to create stem cells from any kind of cells. The goal is generating cells to be used in treating degenerative diseases and brain and spinal cord injuries.
The New Jersey Assembly waged a furious debate over the stem cell research legislation, which did not authorize any practices that were not already legal but assured researchers that the state would not interfere. The measure was approved more easily in the Senate. In California, Stanford University received a $12 million gift to establish a stem cell research center, as have several other private universities, including Columbia University.
But Dr. Ira Black, who worked on the proposal for Mr. McGreevey, said, "This, I do believe, will vault New Jersey into a world leadership position." Dr. Black, a stem cell researcher at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, added that the research "should touch every disease I can think of," including Alzheimer's, diabetes, stroke and heart disease.
Paul J. Byrne, the chairman of New Jersey Right to Hope, an organization of patient advocacy groups, said that "everything is exploding around the world" in stem cell research and that Mr. McGreevey was the only governor in the position of bringing it to the United States.
The research institute will constitute an item in the governor's budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. While it does not require a separate legislative appropriation, the plan is expected to renew the debate that flared last fall over the research bill.
"You need the legislature's support no matter what," Dr. Young said. "Whether you can slip it in or not is not the issue. This is too high-profile to slip it in."
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