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.

Emboldened state and federal lawmakers, patient advocacy groups and
medical researchers are already increasing efforts to advance the
research, including a planned push for the 2007 Congress to provide
federal funding.

'THEY'VE SAID YES TO IT'

Incoming Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi,
a California Democrat, said last week she will make federal support
a priority.

"It's clear the new Congress is going to be even more favorable to
embryonic stem-cell research," said Sean Tipton, president of the
Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, which supports
the research. "The American people have had the opportunity to go to
the ballot box on stem-cell research and ... they've said yes to
it."

Scientists believe that if they can harness embryonic stem cells,
which can turn into any cell or tissue type, they can one day repair
damage done by many currently incurable diseases and injuries.

Embryonic stem cells can be obtained through frozen embryos
discarded by fertility clinics or through a process called somatic
cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT, which scientists say has greater
capacity to regenerate specific cell types.

But many religious conservatives see the work as the taking of a
human life. They even oppose the SCNT method, which uses only
unfertilized eggs and not frozen embryos, because the process of
inserting the nucleus of a body cell into the shell of an
unfertilized egg amounts to human cloning, the critics say.

"In order to get the embryonic stem cells they must kill a living
human being, said Jim Sedlak, vice president for American Life
League. "The public is being very misled."

Carey Gillam
November 13, 2006(washingtonpost.com) -