When Missouri's elected representatives arrive to work for the 2005 legislative session this week, they will have their hands full of material about the ethics and implications of a proposed statewide ban on somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).
The material includes a letter and background information from Rep. Jim Lembke (R), one of the bill's originators, describing what he says are the advantages of adult stem cells over embryonic stem cells and the ethical problems with both reproductive and therapeutic cloning.
However, leaders from Missouri research institutions have also sent their own letter to legislators, urging them to ban reproductive cloning but not SCNT, a step they argue would undermine the state's entire life science industry. The letter, sent last month, is signed by William H. Danforth, chairman of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis; Elson Floyd, president of the University of Missouri System; William Neaves, president ...
