Brain drain feared without new stem-cell laws
Here's one glaring example of how the Christian Taliban is hurting our state...this law was passed in the late nineties.

The threat of losing revenue and top scientists has revved up Michigan's debate over human embryonic stem cells.

Leading University of Michigan researchers are lobbying the school's administration and others to adopt a strong public statement supporting embryonic stem-cell research. They favor changes in state laws that currently relegate Michigan to the bottom five states for laws that allow research on embryonic stem cells.

The campaign comes as the U.S. House voted Tuesday to lift limits on embryonic stem-cell research, a measure supporters say could accelerate finding cures for diseases.

President George W. Bush called the bill a mistake and said he would veto it. The House approved it by a 238-194 vote, far short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.

"This bill would take us across a critical ethical line by creating new incentives for the ongoing destruction of emerging human life," the president said Tuesday. "Crossing this line would be a great mistake."

Republican leaders instead offered an alternative measure to fund research using stem cells derived from adults and umbilical cords.

Attempts to change Michigan's law face similar obstacles.

Neither Gov. Jennifer Granholm nor legislative leaders have expressed interest. Granholm, who recently proposed borrowing as much as $2 billion from bond initiatives to promote life-sciences research, supports stem-cell research but is not advocating a change in Michigan laws, spokeswoman Liz Boyd said Tuesday.

Substantial majorities in both Michigan's House and Senate are aligned with the positions of the Michigan Catholic Conference and Right to Life, which support current laws.

U-M, the state's leading stem-cell research center with a $2.2-million grant to study federally approved embryonic stem-cell lines, stands to gain if federal or state restrictions are loosened.

The medical school's dean, the head of its cancer program and others all favor changes.

"This area is about to explode," said James Douglas Engel, PhD, professor and chair of U-M's Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and one of the scientists leading the charge for a university policy that supports a fuller range of stem-cell research. He spoke in an interview Friday in his Ann Arbor office.

Without changes in state laws, Michigan risks losing scientists -- senior ones and students in the pipeline -- as well as patentable discoveries that could fuel economic development in the state, said Dr. Allen Lichter, dean of U-M's medical school.

"It is enormously problematic if the State of Michigan or the University of Michigan, in particular, become uncompetitive in this area," Lichter said.

I would love to see Granholm take up this fight. To think that the U of M would fall behind the rest of the country in medical research...it's ridiculous. We lose money, we lose jobs, we lose students and scientists, we lose, period.