Copyright 2004 Bergen Record Corporation  
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
January 5, 2004 Monday All Editions
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1134 words
SOURCE: North Jersey Media Group
BYLINE: DANIEL SFORZA and MICHELLE HAN, STAFF WRITERS

Some say it will help the disabled walk and provide cures for diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and diabetes. Others say it is morally reprehensible because it creates life only to destroy it for research.

Whatever the view, controversial stem cell research is now legal in New Jersey, signed into law by Governor McGreevey on Sunday.

"Today we celebrate the possible," McGreevey said before signing the bill at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange. "Suffering and pain are not to be tolerated forever. This legislation is about providing lifesaving medicine."

McGreevey was joined at Kessler by actor Christopher Reeve, who rehabilitated at the institute following a paralyzing horse-riding accident in 1995.

"It is not about what stem cells will do for one individual," Reeve said. "It is about whether or not we have the courage to protect the freedom of scientific inquiry."

Not everyone sees it that way.

"The bill signed by Governor McGreevey today is a sinister, unprecedented, egregious affront to humanity," said Marie Tasy, public and legislative affairs director for New Jersey Right to Life. "This is truly a dark day for New Jersey."

The new law allows researchers, both public and private, to conduct experiments on stem cells derived from embryos and adults. It will allow the cells to be replicated over and over for continued research.

The law also will allow for "somatic cell nuclear transplantation" or therapeutic cloning, where genetic material is moved from one cell to another. Opponents say this procedure is the beginning of creating a human clone.

Under the law, doctors who provide fertility treatments will be required to tell couples they can donate unwanted embryos for scientific research. The law also calls for an institutional review board to study issues related to stem-cell research and advise the governor and Legislature.

Stem cells are formed within the first few days of an embryo's creation, and give rise to the entire human body. Because these essentially blank cells have enormous potential for growth, scientists hope to manipulate them into tissue that can be used to repair damaged organs and nerves.

Supporters of stem-cell research hope the methods will one day produce cures for cancer and other diseases, as well as brain and spinal cord injuries.

"The future is so exciting," said John Caggianelli of Hudson, N.Y., who attended the bill-signing on Sunday.

Caggianelli, 48, was paralyzed during a car accident in 2002 and lost use of his arms and legs. He spent 15 months at Kessler rehabilitating.

"I'm going to have a future to possibly walk again," he said. "Maybe in five or 10 years. Hopefully it will be five years."

Dr. Steven Kirshblum, director of the spinal cord injury department at Kessler, took a more cautious approach to the research.

"There is a tremendous optimism," he said. "One should never put a timetable on expectations. The people saying it's three years, it's more hope than promise. But you never know."

The methods are highly controversial.

The Catholic Church and antiabortion groups oppose embryonic stem-cell research, saying the destruction of human embryos for any reason is wrong. Social conservatives also say the methods will open the door to human cloning and the sale of human embryos and fetal tissue.

"Any treatment which claims to save human lives, yet is based upon the destruction of human life in its embryonic, fetal, or newborn stage is logically and morally contradictory," said a statement released Sunday by the Catholic advocacy group Priests for Life. "This bill is an abomination to humanity."

Critics of the law claim there are flaws in the bill, specifically the sections that ban human cloning and prohibit the sale of embryos or fetal tissue for profit. They say huge loopholes have been created by carefully worded language.

For instance, the law defines cloning of a human to be "cultivating a cell with genetic material through the egg, embryo, fetal, and newborn stages into a new human individual."

Critics say such language, specifically the word "through," will allow researchers not only to create the embryo, but to grow it into the fetal stage before terminating.

And although the law prohibits the sale of embryos or fetal tissue, it exempts "reasonable payment for the removal, processing, disposal, preservation, quality control, storage, transplantation, or implantation of embryonic or cadaveric fetal tissue."

"This bill doesn't just limit research to the embryonic stage, but allows it through the fetal and newborn stages," Tasy said. "We are talking about fetal cadavers. [The law] is riddled with fatal defects and loopholes."

Reeve responded to the moral concerns about the research by pointing to the separation of church and state guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

"The most serious concern opponents have is therapeutic cloning; they are afraid of the dreaded slippery slope that will lead to reproductive cloning," he said. "That can and will be regulated."

Reeve said the beauty of America is that different people can have different views.

"Every religion has a different idea of when life begins," he said. "While we respect everyone's right to speak up in debate, that means secular law must prevail."

A national debate over the use of stem cells erupted in 2001, when President Bush adopted a policy banning federal funding for research on new stem-cell lines. The federal policy did not apply to existing lines or to privately funded research. It also did not preclude states from enacting their own laws.

In 2002, California became the first state to pass a law legalizing stem-cell research, and New Jersey's law is modeled after it. A half-dozen other states, including Illinois and New York, are considering similar laws.

The New Jersey bill, considered on a fast track toward McGreevey's desk last winter, became mired in antiabortion politics after nationally syndicated columnist Robert Novak condemned it in February 2003. Opponents launched a fierce campaign to defeat the bill, and its sponsors withdrew it for lack of support.

Lawmakers were able to pass the bill in the Assembly - its last legislative hurdle - by mustering just enough votes for its victory during a busy lame-duck session in December.

Even after its passage, the bill's opponents said they would continue their campaign against the use of human embryos for research, and urged McGreevey, without success, to veto the bill.

The law does not provide grant money for stem-cell research; however, taxpayer funding for the research is a possibility, said Health and Senior Services Commissioner Clifton Lacy.