Yes to stem-cell research

Palm Beach County commissioners have committed a minimum of $300 million in public money to lure Scripps Florida as the anchor that will make this area a biotech center. To protect and enhance that investment, commissioners today should endorse a constitutional amendment endorsing stem-cell research in Florida.

Ideally, such an amendment would not be necessary. But recently, President Bush, Gov. Bush, Congress and the Florida Legislature all have made clear that they will let ideology interfere with science and medicine. The Terri Schiavo case is the most blatant example. But the most harmful could be the hostility toward publicly financed embryonic stem-cell research.

Gov. Bush, like his brother, has declared that research involving human embryonic stem cells is "taking a life to save a life." In fact, in almost all cases such research makes use of tissue that otherwise would be unused or discarded. The goal is treatment to cure or prevent serious genetic diseases and to provide therapies to repair nerve damage.

Scripps itself does not do embryonic stem-cell research. But other companies will want to pursue the promise of stem cells, and Palm Beach County should be eager to recruit them. Compare Gov. Bush's attitude with that of California, where voters approved spending $3 billion on stem-cell research. To demonstrate that they are on the side of unfettered scientific research, commissioners should endorse Commissioner Burt Aaronson's push for an amendment to the state constitution.

Stem-cell research has the potential to be of tremendous benefit, and Palm Beach County has the potential to host leading companies in the field. Commissioners will decide whether to play politics or fulfill that potential.