In just one weekend at the State Fair, over 1,000 Iowans have signed the Iowa Democratic Party’s petition to encourage Jim Nussle, Mike Whalen, Jeff Lamberti, Steve King and Tom Latham to abandon their dangerous position against stem cell research and join a bi-partisan movement to expand this life-saving research.

“With this kind of response, it’s clear Iowans agree that it is time to put special interests aside and give our friends, family and neighbors seeking treatment for devastating medical conditions all of the tools possible to find a cure. Brownback’s extreme view on this issue is out of touch with Iowans,” said Iowa Democratic Party Executive Director Mike Milligan. ”By opposing stem cell research, Brownback is denying millions of Americans the opportunity to find cures for some of the most devastating diseases.”

Brownback Calls Embryonic Stem Cell Research “Killing,” Tries to Ban A Commonly Used Procedure In Research. Brownback says, “Embryonic stem cell research is research in which a living human embryo is killed for the purpose of using its cells for research purposes.” In October 2005, Brownback supports a plan to ban all types of human cloning, including a procedure commonly used in stem cell research. The procedure is called somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT. It is used to create stem cells with specific genetic malfunctions, to study how diseases develop. Researchers also hope to use it to create stem cell treatments with a patient’s own DNA. [http://brownback.senate.gov/LIStemCell.cfm; St. Petersburg Times, 8/14/06]

Brownback Complained of the Disparity Between Destroying Animals Cells and Human Cells. Brownback, at a press conference on stem cell research, pointed to a photograph of a bald eagle and complained of a disparity between treatment of human and bird embryos. “You can face . . . two years in prison for destroying a bald eagle egg,” he said, but “taxpayer dollars are used to destroy a human at the same phase of life.” [Washington Post, 7/18/06]

Brownback Compared Embryonic Stem Cell Research To Nazi Experiments On Concentration Camp Prisoners During World War II. Brownback said, “You are taking live human embryos in this case, and stem cells [will be extracted] from them. You had the Nazis in World War II saying, ‘Now these people are going to be killed. Why don’t we experiment on them and find out what happens? They’re going to die anyway.’” When Senator Specter interjected, “They were living people,” Brownback replied. “These are living embryos.” [Issues in Science and Technology, Summer 2000]