In Bloomberg Law, Mark Barnes Discusses How State ‘Personhood’ Law Could Threaten Embryonic Stem Cell Research

In The News
August 5, 2022
Attorneys:

In a Bloomberg Law article, health care partner Mark Barnes discussed how ‘personhood’ law could threaten embryonic stem cell research in states seeking to give embryos and fetuses the same rights as people following the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs decision overturning federal abortion rights.

Embryonic stem cells offer promise in health and medicine because they can turn into any cell in the human body, offering the potential to repair and regenerate tissue damaged by a range of diseases. They can also be used to screen drug candidates for toxicity.

Mark explains that if states grant personhood to embryos without specific exceptions for derivation of stem cells from embryos, then there can be no stem cells on which to do biomedical research or develop therapeutic products and research institutions might move their facilities to states without such laws.