ANN ARBOR—Last November, Michigan voters voiced their support for embryonic stem cell science by approving Proposal 2, a state constitutional amendment that lifted onerous restrictions on research that holds great promise to improve the treatment of deadly diseases. The package of bills submitted by Sen. Tom George and his colleagues attempts to block most of the research contemplated by Proposal 2, in direct violation of the will of Michigan voters.

Stem cell research is the most highly regulated form of medical research, governed by extensive federal regulation imposed by the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration. As a result of the passage of Proposal 2, stem cell research in Michigan is more highly regulated than in any other state. It must be legal under federal law as well as abiding by a series of additional restrictions in the Michigan Constitution.

The proposed legislation attempts to block most of the research contemplated under Proposal 2 by redefining the terms used in Proposal 2 in ways that are inconsistent with their medical and scientific meanings. Proposal 2 restored to Michigan families rights that families already had throughout the rest of the country. Proposal 2 gave Michigan families the option to donate for research embryos that were created for the purpose of fertility treatment but unsuitable for clinical use and that would otherwise be discarded if not used for research. The proposed legislation would take this right away from Michigan families by imposing a highly restrictive and medically meaningless definition for “unsuitable for clinical use” that would force families in Michigan to throw away embryos rather than having the option to donate them for research.

For example, patients elect to discard embryos that are found to carry the Huntington’s disease gene rather than using them for fertility treatment. However, these embryos would not meet the restrictive new standard for “unsuitable for clinical use” in these bills, and Michigan families would be forced to discard these embryos rather than having the option to donate them for research to cure Huntington’s disease. These bills would not save a single embryo from destruction. They would only delay medical research.

These bills would impede the development of the life sciences sector in Michigan by making it illegal to pursue mainstream forms of medical research that are widely accepted throughout the rest of the country. The bills would impair the ability of the University of Michigan to recruit new faculty, to compete for federal grants, and to develop cures for the diseases that affect the people of Michigan. These bills undermine the will of the voters, who voted not to allow the Legislature to “obstruct or discourage” stem cell research.