Well, Time will tell, and I am not too optimistic since this same Senate voted down, not once but twice, the parental notification amendment after which, there was no outrage by the 5 bishops in NJ. They should have, at least, printed the names of the Senators voting NO in their newspapers. Here is a link in today's news.
I am wondering why Cardinale (a staunch pro-life conservative) did not vote NO and only abstained. John Matheussen (R-4) just ran in the US Senate primary, against Forrester and Allen, last June as a PRO-LIFE CATHOLIC, I wonder what happened in 6 months?
http://www.nj.com/statehouse/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1040109742210290.xml
Bill moves N.J. closer to being a leader in stem cell research
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
BY ROBERT SCHWANEBERG
Star-Ledger Staff
The Senate yesterday passed a bill that would make New Jersey the second state to officially encourage medical research using embryonic stem cells despite President Bush's policy of sharply restricting it.
Supporters said research using embryonic stem cells could produce cures for a variety of ailments including Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries, cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
Critics raised a variety of ethical and moral objections. Some said it destroys human life in its earliest form, while others objected to the bill's official endorsement of a form of human cloning for purposes of medical research. The bill would outlaw human cloning for purposes of reproduction.
"It is my hope that in 10 years the State of New Jersey will be the state where we have found a cure where an Alzheimer's patient can once again remember his daughter's name," Senate co-President Richard Codey (D-Essex), the bill's sponsor, told his colleagues.
Five Republicans joined all 20 Democrats in voting for the bill. It now goes to the Democrat-controlled Assembly, where it received a warm reception yesterday from Assembly Speaker Albio Sires (D-Hudson).
"I'm in favor of that 100 percent -- anything that can cure Alzheimer's," Sires said, adding that he would need to study the bill's details.
No senators voted against the bill, but 15 Republicans refused to support it by abstaining.
Sen. Diane Allen (R-Burlington) said more Republicans would have supported it if it did not officially endorse a controversial technique that inserts adult DNA into the nucleus of an unfertilized egg and is commonly known as therapeutic cloning. Allen unsuccessfully tried to have it dropped from the bill.
Scientists at Stanford University in California, the first state to endorse embryonic stem cell experimentation, announced last week they would use therapeutic cloning to make stem cells for medical research. Supporters of such experimentation, notably actor Christopher Reeve, contend it holds great promise for developing therapies and replacement organs that minimize the chance of rejection because they are based on the patient's own DNA.
In theory, an embryo created through somatic cell nuclear transfer could be implanted into a woman and grow into a genetic replica of the DNA donor. Codey's bill would outlaw that and violators would face prison terms of up to 20 years.
But Marie Tasy, director of public and legislative affairs for New Jersey Right to Life, said that part of the bill needs to be tougher. As written, she said, it "would allow a cloned human embryo to be implanted and grown and harvested for its organs up until the day of delivery."
Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Bergen) said the legislation "has a great objective" but pursues it through unethical means.
"There are some people who think the embryo is a person, and for them killing that embryo (to harvest its stem cells), for whatever good purpose, is just not something we have a right to do," Cardinale said.
In order to discourage the destruction of any more embryos, President Bush limited federal funding to research on stem cell lines already created before August 2001. Codey's bill goes against that policy by encouraging couples who undergo in vitro fertilization procedures and end up with unused embryos to donate them for research.