Senate Set to Pass Ban on Human Cloning

By STEVEN WALTERS

Madison The state Senate was poised today to pass a bill banning human cloning with no exception for research to fight crippling diseases after an initial vote Tuesday showed the ban had enough votes to pass.

But Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle will veto the bill, which has already passed the Assembly, said Doyle aide Melanie Fonder.

"Everyone is against human cloning, but the real purpose for this bill is to prevent stem-cell research, and the governor will veto it," Fonder added.

In emotional debate Tuesday, senators refused, on a 17-16 vote, to exempt therapeutic research, which legislators said is not yet being done in Wisconsin. Some argued that such research offers hope to those suffering diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis and from spinal cord injuries.

After that, Democrats then delayed to today a final vote on the bill (AB 599).

The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan), and leaders of Wisconsin Right to Life, which is pushing the change, said it has more than enough votes to pass the Senate.

Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) sponsored the exemption for therapeutic research Tuesday, saying banning it now would deny hope to people like her brother, who has multiple sclerosis.

One of Wisconsin’s "great strengths" is medical research, including on stem cells, that began on the University of Wisconsin- Madison campus, Darling said.

Any future therapeutic research would have to be approved by two university-related research boards, Darling said, adding that her amendment would have also required a one-year warning to the Legislature that the research was about to start in Wisconsin.

But Leibham said that allowing therapeutic research would "sacrifice another human being," because all such research starts with a fertilized human egg.

Sen. Judy Robson (D-Beloit), a nurse, said cells used for therapeutic research are not allowed to "grow into a person," so that research is significantly different from research to clone a person. An outright ban on cloning would cripple the state’s medical research industry, she said.

Therapeutic cloning removes DNA from an egg’s nucleus, then injects diseased cells into the empty egg. The egg is stimulated and, within 100 days, cells form that are cultivated. Scientists hope to inject them into heart, bone or other cells to fight disease.

Republican Sen. Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau said he was voting to ban all cloning because UW-Madison officials have refused to say exactly what medical research is now being conducted.

Medical professionals: On a 21-12 vote, the Senate again passed a bill that would give job protections to physicians, nurses, and hospital, clinic and nursing home workers who refuse to participate in certain medical procedures because of personal or religious beliefs. The workers would be able to refuse to participate in sterilizations, abortions, embryonic research, euthanasia or other procedures. Pharmacists also could decline to fill certain prescriptions for some contraceptives on moral grounds.

The vote sent the bill (AB 207) to Doyle, who will veto it for a second time, Fonder said.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Carol Roessler (R-Oshkosh), said it would not prohibit any of those medical procedures, but simply allow someone who objected to them to legally refuse to participate in them.

But Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) said medical professionals should have known what was expected of them when they were hired.

Pre-abortion information: The state Senate also voted, 21-12, to require physicians to inform women considering abortions that some researchers think a fetus 20 weeks or older can feel pain.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), said it would require physicians to "give all sides" of the abortion debate, if the physician believes the fetus is 20 weeks or older. Grothman said some medical researchers have concluded that fetuses older than 20 weeks behave in ways that suggest they feel pain and may be physically developed enough to feel pain.

Grothman’s bill would expand current law, which requires physicians to inform women considering an abortion that they can review materials about the physical development of the fetus.

But Robson said the bill would impose "junk science" on physicians and women who are about to make one of the most emotional decisions of their lives.

Meanwhile Tuesday, the Assembly voted 96-0 for sweeping changes that, among other things, would require the electronic recordings of police interrogations. Doyle has promised to sign the bill into law.

The measure, which now goes to the Senate, stems from the case of Steven Avery, a Manitowoc County man who was released in 2003 after serving 18 years in prison for a sexual assault he didn’t commit.

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Stacy Forster of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

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