Families have a lot riding on stem cell debate (Michigan)

LANSING -- Legislation to ease Michigan's restrictions on embryonic stem cell research got further Tuesday than it ever has -- it actually received a public hearing -- but the impassioned testimony signaled just how deeply the opponents are divided.

Ann Arbor resident Danny Heumann, who is paralyzed from the chest down and looking for a cure from such research in part so he can play with his young daughter, wheeled himself before House Health Policy Committee members and urged them not to make stem cell research a "political football."

"We're looking to all of you as our leaders in government to do all you can to alleviate our suffering ... Please don't let us down."

Then there was Stacy and David Giesen of Marshall, who testified against the legislation with toddler son Frank in tow. The couple obtained a frozen embryo from a fertility clinic and had it implanted. They say permitting embryonic stem cell research would sanction the killing of human life.

In 2002, when he was an 18-year-old freshman at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Jeff McCaffrey was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident. A Catholic and opponent of abortion, McCaffrey is now an ardent campaigner for research using stem cells from human embryos.

``I have no moral qualms,'' said McCaffrey. ``It is simply cells,'' he said in a telephone interview. ``Scientists can make those stem cells that are blank turn into spinal cells and heal my injury.''

People such as McCaffrey present a quandary for Republicans, who are split over whether to allow federal funding for research on new stem cells from human embryos. Senate Democrats plan to force a debate on the issue in the coming months and use it in the campaign leading up to the November elections.

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Republicans in the past often have benefited from such ``wedge issues'' -- subjects that divide Democrats' constituencies, such as gun control, abortion and gay marriage. Stem-cell research may be one of the first wedge issues that hurts Republicans more because of President George W. Bush's stand against it; polls show a majority of the public disagrees with him.