Vilsack open to lifting ban on embryo cloning

[Thom Little]

Gov. Tom Vilsack said he would lift the ban he signed on cloning human embryos if the Legislature acted to repeal the law — aligning him more with other Democrats considering running for president in 2008.

But Vilsack said his openness to loosening restrictions on stem cell research in Iowa is based on scientific advances in the three years since the law took effect, not on politics.

"I don't know if that is something the Legislature will take up or approve. But if they would, I would be supportive of it," Vilsack said in a recent interview.

In April 2002, Vilsack signed a bill that banned creating human embryos for research, a process known as therapeutic cloning.

.......

"Now, given the fact that there are opportunities potentially for treatment, and that Iowans will be significantly placed at a disadvantage because it can't be done in Iowa, I think that we ought to think about revisiting that law," he said.



http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060101/NEWS09/601010344/1056

[Debi]

1. Didn't the U of I tell him that three years ago?

I call bullshit - the Legislature that we have right now won't repeal the law, so he's safe saying that he'd sign it. How come every time Vilsack says he's not doing something because of politics, it's just because of politics? :shrug:

[IA_Seth]

2. A consummate politician...

Vilsack is looking less and less like an good ol Iowa boy and more and more like a DC'er to me. While I am glad to see a shift in position, when it comes from deep thought and a genuine change of heart, this looks like shifting positions just to appease a majority (a majority that is growing louder).

And before anyone gets in a huff about knocking other dems...yes, he is still better than what we COULD have had.

[Debi]

3. Just to be an ass - Seth

I thought Mark McCormick would have made a great Governor.....Lightfoot/Gross would have been a disaster however, that we can agree on.