Mass. governor says stem-cell research “Orwellian”

BOSTON (Reuters) – Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a 2008
Republican presidential hopeful, said on Thursday his
administration’s new restrictions on stem cell research are
aimed at heading off an “Orwellian” future.

The state’s Department of Public Health this week issued
regulations banning the creation of embryos for research
purposes.

Scientists say stem cell research could lead to
breakthroughs in treatments for diseases including cancer. But
the issue has become ethically and politically volatile because
extracting the cells entails destruction of an embryo.

“I believe it crosses a very bright moral line to take
sperm and eggs in the laboratory and start creating human
life,” Romney told reporters. “It is Orwellian in its scope. In
laboratories you could have trays of new embryos being
created.”

Romney spoke a week after a Massachusetts company, Advanced
Cell Technology, said it had developed a way to make human
embryonic stem cells without harming the original embryo, a
finding it said could dispel ethical objections.

Stem cells are the body’s master cells, capable of turning
into any other type of cell. They are available from many
sources, but experts believe the most powerful and versatile
cells may be those taken from days-old embryos.

President Bush last month vetoed a bill that would have
raised federal funding for research using embryonic stem cells,
which he views as the destruction of life.

Romney appears to be positioning himself for the 2008
Republican primaries, when he will need to win over
conservative voters to get the party’s nomination, said Julian
Zelizer, a Boston University history professor who follows
Romney closely.

“Stem cells are like the new abortion, in that it’s become
a litmus test for conservatives nationally,” Zelizer said.

Massachusetts legislators opposed Romney’s move, noting
that in May 2005 they enacted a law over Romney’s veto allowing
stem cell research to take place in the state.

At that time Romney offered an amendment that would have
banned the creation of embryos for research purpose.

“The legislature debated, and soundly defeated, the exact
language the Department (of Public Health) has adopted as a
regulation,” wrote State Rep. Daniel Bosley, a Democrat, a memo
to fellow legislators. “Consequently, we should oppose this
language.”