ANNAPOLIS – Legislation to guide state spending on stem cell research passed a Maryland House of Delegates committee Friday, clearing the way for the bill to be debated by the full House.
The measure, which has already passed the Senate after narrowly surviving a Republican-led filibuster, may be debated as early as next week and its supporters predict it will pass easily.
If so, the bill would establish a scientific peer-review committee to decide how to spend state funds for stem cell research provided for in the governor’s budget. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich proposed $20 million early in the legislative session for the research, but that was later reduced to $10 million during a round of Senate cuts.
Ehrlich’s proposal would leave the choice of how to spend the research money up to the Maryland Technology Development Corporation, a quasi-governmental business and technology development organization based in Columbia.
Under the bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee Friday, that choice would instead be made by a peer-review committee made up of scientists, patient advocates and bioethicists – experts on the ethical implications of biological research.
The original version of the bill introduced at the beginning of the session was more ambitious. It mandated $25 million in state funding specifically for embryonic stem cell research, a relatively new field of scientific inquiry that many experts say holds promise for finding cures to a variety of diseases, including diabetes and Parkinson’s.
But many opponents of the bill, including Republican leaders in the Senate, believe that destroying embryos for research is equivalent to abortion. They also argue that adult stem cell research, which has been ongoing for several decades, is closer to producing results and thus warrants more research dollars.
In order to break a filibuster, a compromise was reached which removed the mandated funding and removed language giving priority to research on embryos. It also included two bioethicists on the peer-review committee that would distribute the research funds.
That compromise bill is the one that passed committee Friday by a 19-7 vote along party lines.
Some opponents are not satisfied by the compromise, however, and argue that the bill continues to give priority research on embryos.
“Clearly it will be weighted to make sure more funding goes to embryonic stem cell research,” said Delegate Anthony J. O’Donnell, R-Calvert, who voted against the bill Friday.
The bill’s primary sponsor, Sen. Paula C. Hollinger, D-Baltimore County, however, denied that the measure any longer gives priority to embryonic stem cell research. The bill is expected to be debated by the full House on Wednesday. If passed unamended, it will then go to the desk of Governor Ehrlich to be signed into law or vetoed. 3-24-2005