Essential Estrogen

A public hearing on the bill easing state restrictions on stem cell research has been scheduled for 7 to 10 p.m. on Wednesday in the Iowa House chamber.

The bill, which is being erroneously painted as lifting Iowa's ban on human cloning, allows medical researchers to create embryonic stem cells through cloning. Rep. Lisa Heddens (D-Ames) put the claims against the bill into very simple terms:

"The opponents of this legislation claim that this bill is about state-funded human cloning. This is a totally false claim. The bill continues to prohibit human reproductive cloning. While embryonic stem cell research is already being done in Iowa, none of that research can be applied to patients in the form of treatment and therapies. The proposed legislation would allow that to happen."

The bill was approved 12-9 (party-line) by the House Human Resources Committee and is soon expected to be debated on the floor.