When Missouri's elected representatives arrived for the 2005 legislative session, they had 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 from Rep. Jim Lembke, 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 sent their own letter to legislators, urging them to ban reproductive cloning but not SCNT. They argue that banning SCNT would undermine the state's life science industry. The letter 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 of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City; and Mark S. ...
