Democrat Patty Judge says if elected governor, she’ll seek to repeal the state’s ban on stem cell research. Judge says she’d also establish a 25-million dollar medical center at the University of Iowa to conduct “regenerative” research using new stem cells.
Judge says her proposal is a “culmination” of conversations she’s had with experts, asking how to expand the bio-tech industry in Iowa. “I think this is a smart way to move,” Judge says.
But Judge says in order to form a Center for Regenerative Medicine in Iowa the state law that bans stem cell research would have to be repealed, and she’d seek to repeal that “immediately upon becoming governor.”
One of Judge’s Democratic competitor’s, Mike Blouin , is “pro-life” and while he supports using the existing lines of stem cells for research, he opposes collecting new stem cells from human embryos. Judge’s proposal highlights their differences on the issue.
“I do believe that stem cell research is the future,” she says. “I think it is going to offer significant hope and cures to people suffering from diseases like juvenile diabetes, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries — really opportunities for better life and it’s something that we definitely need to move forward on.” Judge proposes that the state spend 25-million dollars a year for four years on the center.
Judge says it’s her belief that within just a few years the researchers would find new cures and new treatments for diseases and the patents on those cures and treatments would make the center “self-sufficient.”