On Wednesday in the Houston Chronicle, John Robertson argues for changes to the law in the Republic of Texas that would allow for embryonic stem cell research. He makes two major claims–first, that the Obama policy represents an emerging national consensus in favor of embryonic stem cell research and that as such Texan stem cell researchers, regardless of what Governor Rick Perry may believe (who opposes embryonic stem cell research), ought to move forward in doing this research in state laboratories.
Moreover, Robertson goes on to argue that Texas law must to be changed so that scientists can actually derive stem cell lines there; current Texas state penal code makes all embryo research illegal because it defines a human being as alive from “fertilization to birth”. That puts a pretty big wrinkle in embryo research.
Robertson certainly has it right–without such changes, Texas is likely feel the similar brain drain that the US did on the national scale when embryo research could not be done the last 8 years under the Bush administration. While Robertson does not explicitly mention this fear in his commentary, one cannot help but consider the implication for Texas universities if stem cell lines cannot be created there. Grants will not be able to be written for those institutions and the money will not follow. The implications could be devastating for UT, Baylor College of Medicine, and others. Implicitly, Robertson is making that argument as well. The implications of that could be felt for a very long time.
Perhaps Governor Perry and the legislature will consider that and think twice about stem cells with longhorns and lonestars on them before they continue with the status quo.
Summer Johnson, PhD