KANSAS CITY, Mo. A new bill under debate in the Kansas legislature requires KU Medical Center to create a new adult stem cell research facility, but many have concerns about how to pay for it.
Pro-life lawmakers who pushed for the bill say it will help unleash stem cells life-saving potential. But critics say KU Med Center didnt even ask for this, and lawmakers arent giving them a way to pay for it.
The bill has been approved in both the house and senate so it only awaits Governor Brownbacks signature, and he has indicated he supports it. The bill creates the Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center focusing on adult stem cell research.
KU Med Center didnt want to comment for this story, but in the past, it has expressed concerns about establishing this new center, because the startup costs alone are more than a million dollars, and KU says it doesnt have that money. KU Med Center says its researchers are already studying adult stem cells and they agree it is important work. But State Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, (R-Shawnee) says KU was doing the research on a very limited level. She wants to expand it because shes excited about cures and therapies that could come from this work.
To me it was like, why isnt this happening? Why arent we getting research to people who need it? said Pilcher-Cook.
Pilcher-Cooks bill requires KU Medical Center to establish the Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center and focus on studying only adult stem cells. It prohibits use of embryonic stem cells because that involves destroying an embryo.
Not only will it help patients but also spur economic development in our state and region, said Pilcher-Cook.
But critics like State Representative Barbara Bollier, (R-Mission Hills, Kan.) dont understand how KU is supposed to pay for this, especially since lawmakers already plan to cut KUs budget by $10 million this year.
The bigger concern to me is this was a mandate that was unfunded, that was huge, said Bollier.
But shes also worried about the idea of government telling a research facility what they should study. She calls it unprecedented.
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Kansas stem cell research bill: Meddling or progressive?