Stem Cell Vaporware in Massachusetts

Boston Globe published Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's op-ed today, in which he argues against the stem cell bill before his state, one which he will veto, right before his veto is overridden.

Romney's view is that embryonic stem cell research is not necessary, because he has found what he describes as an incredible new plan, invented by Stanford stem cell biologist basic biology lecturer at Stanford William Hurlbut. It is difficult to describe, because it is nonsense of the first order and because it has not been (nor could it be) tried by Dr. Hurlbut, who isn't himself either a stem cell scientist or for that matter a member of the standing faculty at Stanford in biology or anything else, or for that matter a scientist or practicing physician, although all of that and more has been attributed to him by Romney.

Clearly, Governor Romney has better things to do than read our, or for that matter the pro-life crowd's analysis of Hurlbut's idea, which has been utterly destroyed by every single stem cell biologist of any repute. No, he's quite happy with Hurlbut's idea because he simply must make the claim that he wants to do serious stem cell research, but he cannot backpeddle on support for embryos.

So, the Governor marches glibly into what several recent victims of the idea have called "the Hurlbut trap"

"Stem cell research does not require the cloning of human embryos. Some stem cells today are obtained from surplus embryos from in-vitro fertilization. I support that research, provided that those embryos are obtained after a rigorous parental consent process that includes adoption as an alternative. Further, the greatest successes in stem cell research to date have come from the use of adult and umbilical cord stem cells. Stanford professor William Hurlbut, a physician and member of the President's Council on Bioethics, has proposed a promising approach. Known as altered nuclear transfer, this method could allow researchers to obtain embryonic stem cells without the moral shortcut of cloning and destroying a human embryo."

Shortly, as media begin once again to call folks and ask about this 'Hurlbut solution' it will become clear to Governor Romney, just as it did to our President after he promised "60 stem cell lines," that journalists may decide to fact check big-ticket political promises about stem cell research. Vaporware won't fly in basic biology.