Election outcome boosts embryonic stem cell work
The religious protesters are gone and expansion
plans are back on track at a top Kansas City stem-cell research lab after
Missouri voters endorsed the controversial field in last week’s
elections.
The religious protesters are gone and expansion
plans are back on track at a top Kansas City stem-cell research lab after
Missouri voters endorsed the controversial field in last week’s
elections.
With some $2 billion in private funding, and a team of international scientists already at work, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research now sees mostly clear sailing as it seeks stem-cell treatments for illnesses ranging from Alzheimer’s disease to multiple sclerosis.
Passage of the amendment to the state constitution was a turning point, supporters say, as voters across the United States elected stem-cell research proponents and shifted political power in Washington away from Republicans and President Bush, a chief opponent of the research.
“We’re all optimistic. This demonstrates that elected representatives do not have to be held hostage by a minority of conservatives on the religious right,” said Stowers CEO William Neaves, whose wife has Parkinson’s disease.
Incoming Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said last week she will make federal support a priority.
The issue has cut across party lines in many places, drawing in moderate Republicans and independent voters as well as Democrats who see no moral problem with the research and much to gain in the way of medical advancement and economic development…
Fresh off its success in Missouri, the Stowers Institute, whose founders provided more than 90 percent of the money for the campaign to approve the measure, said it would move ahead to break ground on a doubling of its 600,000-square-foot (55,740-square-metre) research facility and recruit new scientists to add to its team of more than 300 researchers.
If anything, some of the recent political victories in the United States indicate voters guided by either conservative philosophy or religious ideology — still may step beyond that “guidance” and make choices based on enlightened self-interest.
I hope.
With some $2 billion in private funding, and a team of international scientists already at work, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research now sees mostly clear sailing as it seeks stem-cell treatments for illnesses ranging from Alzheimer’s disease to multiple sclerosis.
Passage of the amendment to the state constitution was a turning point, supporters say, as voters across the United States elected stem-cell research proponents and shifted political power in Washington away from Republicans and President Bush, a chief opponent of the research.
“We’re all optimistic. This demonstrates that elected representatives do not have to be held hostage by a minority of conservatives on the religious right,” said Stowers CEO William Neaves, whose wife has Parkinson’s disease.
Incoming Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said last week she will make federal support a priority.
The issue has cut across party lines in many places, drawing in moderate Republicans and independent voters as well as Democrats who see no moral problem with the research and much to gain in the way of medical advancement and economic development…
Fresh off its success in Missouri, the Stowers Institute, whose founders provided more than 90 percent of the money for the campaign to approve the measure, said it would move ahead to break ground on a doubling of its 600,000-square-foot (55,740-square-metre) research facility and recruit new scientists to add to its team of more than 300 researchers.
If anything, some of the recent political victories in the United States indicate voters guided by either conservative philosophy or religious ideology — still may step beyond that “guidance” and make choices based on enlightened self-interest.
I hope.
Posted: Tue - November 14, 2006 at 04:47 PM