Ohio Budget Bill Includes Provision to Ban Embryonic Research

COLUMBUS - Michael Weiner, a Cleveland high school senior who wears an insulin pump 24 hours day to keep his diabetes in check, said yesterday he doesn't understand a House bill that he believes would inhibit valuable research.

House Republicans added a provision to the $51.3 billion, two-year budget passed last month to prohibit the use of state Third Frontier high-tech development money for any project associated with human embryonic stem-cell research.

"There are over 400,000 cells in petri dishes in fertility clinics across the country that will be discarded," he said yesterday. "Why not have a donor base so that these embryos can be used to save lives like mine? I want to live."

Sen. Eric Fingerhut (D., Cleveland) plans to try to remove the stem-call language from the budget when it comes up for a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate next month.

"The research that the House would ban is, in fact, going to be conducted in other states in this nation," he said. "Researchers who might consider coming to Ohio and bringing with them the jobs and economic impact that flow from that will go elsewhere to conduct their research."

Gov. Bob Taft is reviewing the amendment, said spokesman Mark Rickel.

Californians recently approved a $3 billion bond issue exclusively for embryonic stem-cell studies. There is no human embryonic stem-cell research under way in Ohio.

The capital budget portion of Mr. Taft's pet Third Frontier project provided $18 million to build the Cleveland Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, which is involved in adult stem-cell research.


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