Congressman Mark Green is apparently relying on the voting public not being able to distinguish between stem cells and the embryonic stem cells that have been at the heart of the national political fight.  While Green says he supports stem cell research, he has long been a crusader in the effort to ban and even criminalize embryonic stem cell research.  (Please see Green's record below).  

What's the difference?  Why are biomedical researchers at UW-Madison, where the world's ground breaking stem cell research began, much more interested in embryonic stem cells than in less controversial types of human stem cells?

According to the UW-Madison researchers, embryonic stem cells are important to medical research because "of their ability to develop into virtually any other cell made by the human body.  In theory, if stem cells can be grown and their development directed in culture, it would be possible to grow cells of medical importance such as bone marrow, neural tissue or muscle."

Human embryonic cells come from fertilized embryos less than a week old.  The more mature a cell gets, the more "specialized" it becomes and won't regenerate damaged tissue very well, UW researchers say.  Adult cells have "an inability to proliferate" and are "difficult to grow in a lab," they add; and adults do not have stem cells in many vital organs — which means only embryonic cells, which have "capacity to become any kind of tissue," can be used to repair vital organs.

Embryonic stem cells are of particular interest to actor and Parkinson's disease sufferer Michael J. Fox because diseases such as Parkinson's "occur because of defects in one of just a few cells types," according to UW-Madison.  For people like Fox, "replacing faulty cells with healthy ones offers hope of lifelong treatment."

Congressman Green's "votes have set us back" on embryonic stem cell research, Fox says this week in TV ads supporting Gov. Jim Doyle.  Doyle, Fox says, "knows the promise it holds and the jobs it will create" in Wisconsin, where stem cell research began.

These days, you can't blame anyone for thinking politics is little more than gamesmanship.  But there is such a thing as an honest, impassioned political ad.

Below is Congressman Green's record on embryonic stem cell research, with source notes, released this week by the state Dems.  The record speaks for itself.

• Congressman Green voted against HR 810, a bipartisan bill to provide federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.  [Source: HR810, Vote #204, 5/24/05]

• Congressman Green stood with George W. Bush when the President vetoed HR 810.  Green then voted in July to sustain the President’s veto.  [Source: HR810, Vote 388, 7/19/06]

• Congressman Green voted for or cosponsored legislation to ban or even criminalize embryonic stem cell research eight times.  [Sources: HRes214, Vote #300, 7/31/01; HR2505, Vote #302, 7/31/01; HR2505, Vote #303, 7/31/01: HR2505, Vote #304, 7/31/01; HR534, Vote #37, 2/27/03; HR534, Vote #38, 2/27/03; HR534, Vote #39, 2/27/03; HR 1357]

• Congressman Green backed efforts by Republicans in the state Legislature to ban embryonic stem cell research.  [Sources: 2005 AB499; Green Press Release, 11/3/05]

• Like George W. Bush, Congressman Green likens embryonic stem cell research to killing. [Sources: Green Press Release, 7/19/06; Green Press Release, 2/12/03]

• The stem cell "plan" introduced by Congressman Green last month isn't backed by science and has been panned by editorial boards around the state.  The Wisconsin State Journal said “Don’t waste green on Green’s scheme,” and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called it “Green’s near-empty proposal.”  [Sources: Wisconsin State Journal, 9/8/06; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 9/8/06]