HB3589sam006 93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Sen. Jeffrey M. Schoenberg

Filed: 6/18/2004

09300HB3589sam006 LRB093 02055 AMC 52191 a

AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 3589

AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 3589 by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the following:

"Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Ronald Reagan Biomedical Research Act.

Section 5. Declaration of findings. The General Assembly finds and declares all of the following:

(1) An estimated 128 million Americans suffer from the crippling economic and psychological burden of chronic, degenerative, and acute diseases, including diabetes, Parkinson's disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease.

(2) The costs of treatment and lost productivity of chronic, degenerative, and acute diseases in the United States constitutes hundreds of billions of dollars every year. Estimates of the economic costs of these diseases do not account for the extreme human loss and suffering associated with these conditions.

(3) Stem cell research offers immense promise for developing new medical therapies for these debilitating diseases and a critical means to explore fundamental questions of biology. Stem cell research could lead to unprecedented treatments and potential cures for diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and other diseases.

(4) The United States has historically been a haven for open scientific inquiry and technological innovation, and this environment, coupled with the commitment of public and private resources, has made the United States the preeminent world leader in biomedicine and biotechnology.

(5) Open scientific inquiry and publicly funded research will be essential to realizing the promise of stem cell research and to maintaining the United States' worldwide leadership in biomedicine and biotechnology. Publicly funded stem cell research, conducted under established standards of open scientific exchange, peer review, and public oversight, offers the most efficient and responsible means of fulfilling the promise of stem cells to provide regenerative medical therapies.

(6) Stem cell research, including the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research, raises significant ethical and policy concerns, and, while not unique, the ethical and policy concerns associated with stem cell research must be carefully considered.

(7) Public policy on stem cell research must balance ethical and medical considerations. The policy must be based on an understanding of the science associated with stem cell research and grounded on a thorough consideration of the ethical concerns regarding this research. Public policy on stem cell research must be carefully crafted to ensure that researchers have the tools necessary to fulfill the promise of stem cell research.

Section 10. Policy permitting research. The policy of the State of Illinois shall be as follows:

(1) That research involving the derivation and use of human embryonic stem cells, human embryonic germ cells, and human adult stem cells from any source, including somatic cell nuclear transplantation, shall be permitted and that the ethical and medical implications of this research shall be given full consideration.

(2) That research involving the derivation and use of human embryonic stem cells, human embryonic germ cells, and human adult stem cells, including somatic cell nuclear transplantation, shall be reviewed by an approved institutional review board, as determined by the Department of Public Health.

Section 15. Information requirement.

(a) An individual receiving fertility treatment shall have the option to choose among the available means of disposing of any human embryos remaining following the fertility treatment. These means may include storing the unused embryos, donating unused embryos to another individual, discarding the embryos, or donating the remaining embryos for research.

(b) An individual who elects to donate embryos remaining after fertility treatments for research shall provide written consent.

Section 20. Purchase or sale prohibited.

(a) A person may not knowingly, for valuable consideration, purchase or sell embryonic or cadaveric fetal tissue for research purposes.

(b) For the purposes of this Section, the giving or receiving of reasonable payment for the removal, processing, disposal, preservation, quality control, storage, transplantation, or implantation of the tissue does not constitute purchase or sale. This Section does not prohibit reimbursement for removal, storage, or transportation of embryonic or cadaveric fetal tissue for research purposes pursuant to this Act.

(c) A person who knowingly purchases or sells embryonic or cadaveric fetal tissue for research purposes in violation of subsection (a) of this Section is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor for the first conviction and a Class 4 felony for subsequent convictions.

(d) Embryonic or cadaveric fetal tissue may be donated for research purposes pursuant to this Act.

Section 25. Liability.

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this Section, procuring, furnishing, donating, processing, distributing, or using embryonic or cadaveric fetal tissue for research purposes pursuant to this Act is declared for the purposes of liability in tort or contract to be the rendition of a service by every person, firm, or corporation participating therein, whether or not remuneration is paid, and is declared not to be a sale of any such items and no warranties of any kind or description nor strict tort liability shall be applicable thereto.

(b) A person, firm, or corporation involved in the rendition of a service described in subsection (a) of this Section warrants to the person, firm, or corporation receiving the service that he or she has exercised due care and followed professional standards of care in providing the service according to the current state of the medical arts.

Section 30. Cloning of human being; criminal penalty. A person who knowingly engages or assists, directly or indirectly, in the cloning of a human being is guilty of a Class 1 felony. As used in this Section, "cloning of a human being" means asexual human reproduction by implanting or attempting to implant the product of nuclear transplantation into a woman's uterus or a substitute for a woman's uterus. Nothing in this Section prohibits somatic nuclear transfer or transplantation.".