Vilsack: A Stupid Politician? Or Just Disingenuous?

Tom Vilsack, the Governor of Iowa, wants to overturn the ban on human cloning in that state. To justify the change, he claims there have been many medical advances created using cloning (nuclear transfer), which, of course, is just, plain baloney. Here’s the money quote from his state of the state speech:

“A strong community embraces change. New discoveries require new approaches. One area that calls for a new approach is the area of medical research. Several years ago we limited medical research involving nuclear cell transplants at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. At the time we never dreamt that new treatments dependent upon such transplants would be developed so quickly. Well, they have been, and as a result we should revisit our ban on nuclear cell transplants. We should remove the restrictions and allow life saving treatments to be administered to Iowans here in Iowa rather than forcing them to leave our state. A strong community would never do otherwise.” (My emphasis.)

There have been no “new treatments” developed with nuclear transfer. None. We now know post Hwang that there haven’t even been any cloned embryonic stem cell lines created. Vilsack is either woefully ignorant or utterly disingenuous.