What do you think of when you think of the state of Michigan? Detroit and cars? Motown and the Supremes? The great lakes? Here is some news you won’t hear much about and you can add this to your interesting facts about Michigan list. Last Thursday the Michigan Senate passed two bills (37-0) to sell bonds to invest in biotech research and businesses. But the public funds from the sale of the bonds cannot be used on embryonic stem cell research or human cloning. Michigan now joins states like North and South Dakota, Iowa and Arkansas who have similar laws prohibiting destructive embryo research and all human cloning.

And the Louisiana House just passed a similar bill.

Article published May 18, 2005
House approves total cloning ban, shuns therapeutic cloning

By KEVIN McGILL
Associated Press Writer

The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to outlaw all forms of human
cloning in Louisiana, then, by a narrower margin, rejected a competing
bill that would have allowed what is called therapeutic cloning for
stem cell research.

The vote for the complete ban by Rep. Dan Morrish, D-Jennings, was
75-23. Rep. Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, sponsored the bill which
would have allowed therapeutic cloning. The vote on LaFleur’s bill was
initially announced as 48-50, but some lawmakers were allowed to
change their vote before it was officially recorded at 45-54.

Author Profile

Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, MA, BSN, RN, is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking.