Hopefuls Embrace Stem Cell Research

Candidate Martin O'Malley, back right, and running mate Anthony G. Brown flank Harry R. Hughes at Bob Kuhl's Catonsville home for a discussion of stem cell research. O'Malley pledged more state money for the science. (By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)

"I do not support any effort that would result in the destruction of a human embryo," Steele said. "I view that embryo as human life."

Steele said he would approve of research using adult stem cells, which are derived from a variety of sources, and cord blood cells. That research is considered less controversial though not as promising by many scientists.

He also said he supports embryonic research that seeks to extract cells without destroying an embryo, a practice that some leading researchers in the field say remains impractical.

On this issue, as well as a handful of others, Steele has broken with Ehrlich. Ehrlich has highlighted Maryland's pledge to subsidize stem cell research in the wake of Bush's 2001 executive order putting the restrictions in place. A state commission that will decide how to spend up to $15 million in the coming year is scheduled to meet for the first time next week.

In his first campaign commercial, the governor boasted of "funding groundbreaking stem cell research." Ehrlich again called public attention to his support at an event this month announcing his appointees to the commission that will guide the funding process.

At O'Malley's event yesterday, however, Hughes said that if Ehrlich had committed to the issue sooner, Maryland could have started funding the research at least a year earlier. That sentiment was echoed by O'Malley, who pledged to boost state spending on the science next year to $25 million. O'Malley also ticked off initiatives to support the research, including helping the state's leading universities create fellowships to foster the science.

Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, a leading sponsor of Maryland's legislation, also chided Ehrlich at the event. "We need leadership," Rosenberg (D-Baltimore) said. "We don't need a governor who has an election-year conversion."

Ehrlich's history on the issue is somewhat nuanced.

He was largely supportive of stem cell research as a member of Congress. But advocates of the science became disillusioned with the governor in 2005 when he remained silent on a bill that would have earmarked $25 million a year for work on embryonic cells.

Ehrlich's budget secretary raised objections to the proposed funding source, and the bill died on the final day of the session because of a threatened GOP-led filibuster in the Senate that Ehrlich made no visible effort to help avert.

At the outset of this year's legislative session, however, Ehrlich announced that he had included $20 million for stem cell research in his budget and that he would not object to embryonic work if a panel of scientists found it the most promising. But under Ehrlich's approach, the state would also be open to funding work on adult cells.

Ehrlich had branded as "unnecessary" Rosenberg's bill to put into law a process for spending the state money. After the bill passed with provisions including adult stem cell work, the governor announced that he would sign it, saying it had evolved to look much like something he had proposed earlier.

"I was very pleased with the result," Ehrlich said yesterday.