the Stem Cell Page

time and ignorance are the enemies

Senator Talent finally breaks silence

Jim Talent opposes Missouri stem cell research initiative

Says he opposes human cloning, yet supports Altered Nuclear Transfer

 

May 1, 2006

 

Shortly after the announcement that the Missouri Stem Cell and Cures Initiative petition drive had garnered twice the required signatures to qualify for the November ballot, Missouri Republican Senator Jim Talent issued a three-sentence statement. "I personally cannot support the initiative because I've always been opposed to human cloning and this measure would make cloning human life at the earliest stage a constitutional right."

 

A spokesman for the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, the group of 46,000 supporters of the Initiative, took exception to how Talent described the proposed constitutional amendment.  "Most Missourians do not believe that making life-saving stem cells in a lab dish is the same thing as cloning a human being," said Donn Rubin, coalition chairman. "And the Missouri initiative will strictly ban any attempt to create duplicate human beings."

Talent's stand on stem-cell research has taken some confusing twists.  For four years, he voiced support for federal legislation that would ban all cloning using human cells, including therapeutic cloning used in early, or embryonic, stem-cell research. The legislation was sponsored by Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) and co-sponsored by Talent.

That stand conflicts with the views of some notable Missouri Republicans, including former Sen. Jack Danforth, who want Kansas City and St. Louis to enhance their stature as key life science research hubs.  The cloning ban  proposed by Brownback could severely obstruct research at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City.  Stowers is funded by a $2 billion endowment making it the second largest private medical research institution in the United States, and should the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative fail, Stowers will redirect its pending $350 million for a new stem cell research campus to some other state, presumably California.

On Feb. 10th, as Talent’s campaign against Democratic state auditor Claire McCaskill heated up, the senator shocked Missouri's right wing by recanting his co-sponsorship of Brownback’s bill.  He proposed increasing research into Altered Nuclear Transfer or “ANT.”  That, he says, renders ethical issues moot - a conclusion disputed by many religious fundamentalists who say the result is still a cloned embryo.

One problem for Talent is that supporting ANT locks him in a ‘catch-22.’  ANT is fundamentally the same process as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) therapeutic cloning, which Talent claims to oppose.  It’s variation is that with ANT, a genetic ‘pre-treatment’ alteration prohibits the cells’ ability to implant in a uterus. But Talent has never acknowledged that the ANT process is reversible - the cells can be reprogrammed to implant - and it is unclear whether he is even aware.  SCNT proponents point out that leaving the cells in a Petri dish is just as effective a barrier to implantation as genetic alteration. Opponents, who claim that life begins with the embryo, say whether or not it implants is not the real issue and any form of cloning, therapeutic or otherwise, still constitutes cloning.

The senator's Feb. 10th change generated a host of outcries from leading Missouri conservatives, including the Missouri Catholic Conference. Larry Weber, the conference's executive director, charged Talent with a "Flip-flop."

In his statement Monday, Talent said he would continue to support new research efforts "that hold promise to give us exactly the stem cells we want to relieve human suffering without cloning."  He added, "I would encourage every Missourian to study the initiative carefully and make up their own minds on this very difficult moral issue."

A January poll conducted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch revealed that about two-thirds of Missourians support the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, and McCaskill and the state Democratic Party have hammered at Talent to take a public stand. They also criticized him for seeking to have it both ways on the issue by removing his name from the Brownback bill while at the same time publicly supporting many of the legislation's goals.  “Jim Talent has been on every side of this issue except for the right one," noted Missouri Democratic spokesman Jack Cardetti.

On Monday, a spokeswoman for McCaskill suggested that many Missourians had hoped that Talent would support the stem-cell initiative after dropping his backing of Brownback's bill.  "He was against it before he was for it and now he's against it again," McCaskill spokeswoman Adrianne Marsh said.  “Missourians are confused. Obviously, Senator Talent is confused himself because the initiative strictly prohibits human cloning.” Then she added,  “Senator Talent will probably change his mind again after his next poll.”

Recent polls taken prior to Talent’s statement on the Missouri Initiative show Talent and McCaskill are in a statistical dead heat.  The initiative, which will be on the same Missouri ballot in November, may well prove to be the wedge issue that tips the balance.

To contact us:   Click Here