Advocates of stem cell research said Thursday they were pleased after Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed a bill banning human cloning'a bill they say could have interfered with UW-Madison's stem cell research.
Doyle announced his veto at a press conference held in a Genetics/Biotechnology Center Building lab while surrounded by a group of children, including Maggie Shelly, a girl with juvenile diabetes.
Although the bill banned human cloning, complaints arose over the bill's language, which opponents say did not distinguish between therapeutic and reproductive research.
Human cloning is currently prohibited by the federal Food and Drug Administration. However, Doyle claimed the bill would also hamper Wisconsin's stem cell research.
'Everyone agrees that human cloning is not acceptable, but that's not what this bill was really about,' Doyle said. 'This legislation was a very cynical way to try to scare people into stopping life-saving research that is going on at this university.'
Supporters of the veto said they are happy with Doyle's action because they feel stem cell research is important to the university.
Opponents of Doyle's veto said they fear that stem cell research will be taken too far, leading to cloning.
One of the bill's sponsors, state Rep. Carol Owens, R-Oshkosh, said Wisconsin and the United States have a lot to learn before entering cloning research.
'I'm all in favor of research that's done properly and doesn't buy and sell parts or create bodies just to take them apart and put them back together some other way. We have seen a little bit of that in history, let's put it that way, and I didn't like it then and I don't like it now,' Owens said.
State Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, added he is also disappointed with the governor's decision and said it creates a loophole for Wisconsin scientists to create clones.
'This is a common sense ban on human cloning; nothing more, nothing less,' Suder said.
In addition to the university, other groups searching for cures to various diseases support Doyle's veto of the bill. Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International called Doyle's veto 'heroic,' saying the bill 'attempted to criminalize potentially life-saving medical research.'
According to the president of the Western Wisconsin Chapter of JDRF, Tom Liebe, JDRF supports restrictions on reproductive cloning but opposed the bill because it would have threatened other forms of stem cell research.
Liebe also said this research gives hope for many American families.
Michelle Alswager, a JDRF board member and mother of a child with Type 1 diabetes said, 'For us, we consider it a big win for those affected with juvenile diabetes.'
