Visiting assistant professor Dr. Mei-hui Tai works Friday afternoon at the MSU stem cell research lab in the Food Safety and Toxicology Building under a biohazard hood used to prevent dirty air from contaminating sample cells.
Voters will have the chance to resolve an ethical issue that has been debated in the Michigan Legislature for years when they cast their ballots this November. Proposal 2 seeks to amend the state’s constitution to loosen restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research in Michigan.
Embryonic research is allowed in Michigan, but researchers must get their cells from outside the state. Taking them from sources within the state is a felony.
The proposal would allow Michigan families to donate leftover embryos from in vitro fertilization to stem cell research.
“There is not a person in this state that does not know someone that could potentially benefit from stem cell research,” said Chris DeWitt, spokesman for Cure Michigan, the group behind the proposal. “This is a very fundamental issue for many people that want to see Michigan be able to participate in finding these cures.”
Although there are still many mysteries surrounding stem cell research, scientists believe it could lead to cures for diseases such as diabetes and cancer and repair tissue damage in the spinal cord and heart.
But its opponents say using embryonic stem cells to find those cures is like trading one human life for another.
“A young human embryo is still a human,” said David Prentice, a biochemist representing the Family Research Council, which opposes the proposal. “We don’t believe they should be destructed for any reason, including research.”
The debate over stem cell research hits close to home for MSU student Julie Lahaie. Lahaie’s mother and uncle both have multiple sclerosis, a nervous system disease that damages nerve cells and leads to problems with muscle coordination, strength, vision, thinking and memory.
“My uncle’s multiple sclerosis is very far progressed, and it’s just sad to see that my mom could end up that way … when there are options to research a cure for it,” Lahaie said.
She said stem cell research offers promising prospects to treat or cure multiple sclerosis. For her, the decision to support Proposal 2 is clear.
“It would give us a little bit of hope that, maybe, we won’t have to watch our loved ones suffer and die,” she said.
“Even if we do, there will come a time when others don’t have to.”
Michigan’s laws regarding stem cell research are among the most restrictive in the nation.
More than 40 other states allow researchers to harvest embryonic stem cells, DeWitt said.
Chia-Cheng Chang, a stem cell researcher at MSU who uses adult human and animal stem cells, said the proposal would allow Michigan to compete with other states for funding and scientists.
“It’s not easy to get support,” he said. “(If the proposal passes) there will be more money, more people working in this area.”
Leonard Fleck, a professor in MSU’s Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences, said most citizens support embryonic research, but attempts to pass laws allowing it have been stymied in the Legislature. The constitutional amendment was created to get around that problem, he said.
“The proponents of this ballot initiative are, in effect, saying ‘Well, we can’t through the normal legislative process … we have to find another political avenue,’” he said.
But state Sen. Tom George, R-Kalamazoo, who is chairman of the Health Policy Committee, said the issue should stay in the Legislature instead of proposing a constitutional amendment.
“If they’re frustrated with the legislative process, well, welcome to the party,” he said. “It would serve the people better to have this in statute that is malleable, rather than in the constitution, which is fixed.”
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George, who spoke on behalf of Michigan Citizens Against Unrestricted Science and Experimentation, said a constitutional amendment would keep lawmakers from regulating the stem cell industry if new issues arise in the future.
But DeWitt said it does leave room for oversight. Accusations that it doesn’t are attempts to mislead the public, he said.
“There is a role for the state as far as regulating this type of research,” he said.
Until legislation to allow embryonic research is passed, Michigan’s universities can’t compete with universities in states with looser regulations and rules, Fleck said.
“If you ask embryonic stem cell researchers, it’s about human medicine and human suffering, human disease you would hope to find a cure of,” he said.
“If you have a law that says you can’t do that … with embryonic stem cells, there would be some very creative researchers who are just not going to come here.”
