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Joe
Uecker
State
Representative
12/07/05
Current
Legislation
With
just a few weeks left in the year, the General Assembly is
meeting two last times for the year.
As I sit in my home office studying the bills that
will most likely come before the General Assembly for a
floor vote, I count at least 19 bills that may possibly
come for debate. Of
those 19, at least 12 will be contentious, signifying
hours of heated and emotional outpouring by various
legislators. Hoping not to convey here any hint of
potential “fluff”, I can only hope that hearts and
minds will be a more festive and holiday spirit than have
been displayed in the past.
Topics
for these last two days will range anywhere from creating
rules to limit or to prohibit using state dollars to
promote high tech research in the biomedical areas of stem
cell research and cloning (a guaranteed minimum 6 hours of
debate) to rules to regulate what goes into construction
debris land fills (some pretty scary stuff goes into that
things – that end up at our drinking tap).
I am reading up on topics for legislation regarding
shooting lasers into airliner cockpits. Yes, little
Johnny’s pocket laser pointer may shine a pencil point
beam 20 feet away, but when he points it at a passing
airliner at 20,000 feet, that beam is about 40 feet wide
and can do some real optical damage if the pilot looks out
the window to see what it is.
Another
sure bet for a barn burner is HB 158 that is an attempt to
bolster
Ohio
’s historic horse racing industry by allowing video
racing machines at the racetracks.
This was an interesting bill to listen to.
The industry wants us to make a change in
definitions so that after you get done betting on a live
race, you can try your luck/skill at a video terminal
loaded with prior races. Of course, you never know what
day, year, or even what state the video taped race is
from, but you can look at who the horse is and who the
jockey is and make some educated guesses from there.
I had never been to the tracks until this year and
I have to say it was exciting and interesting just to be
there and watch the giant steeds run.
As
for the current debate on limiting embryonic stem cell
research and human cloning research, I thought I pretty
much had the technology down until it was recently
announced that scientists believe they can extract stem
cells without harming the embryo.
That was great news.
Now couple that news with the concept of human
cloning. If they can remove cells and create another cell
(zygote) without having to fertilize it… this then
becomes another viable human life – with all the rights
to pursue life and liberty as the next person does. What
about “therapeutic cloning”?
Being able to use a cell to develop a new organ…
just an organ. We already know we have tremendous
shortages of transplantable organs. It would solve many
social and medical issues if we could simply grow a new
kidney in a tube for transplant later.
Needless
to say, just when you think you have the science down
straight, it changes. We had to go back to the drawing
board to try and make the new legislation do exactly what
we want it to do; protect human life. I’m not sure there
is any one single correct answer to this issue but we
certainly are giving a good try.
Speaking
of organ transplant, maybe this Christmas season you could
consider registering to be an organ donor. I have been a
registered marrow donor for years. While
you’re at it, consider giving a pint of blood. The
supply is always low this time of year.
Give
Hoxworth
Blood
Center
a call (451-0910) and schedule an appointment.
I’ll be there. Maybe I’ll see you.
Have
a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year to all.
Joe
Uecker
State
Representative
Ohio’s
66 District
Representing
Batavia, Goshen, Miami and Union Townships as well as the
Cities of Loveland and Milford and the Villages of Batavia
and Amelia.(614)
466-8134
District
Office (513)-248-2565
Website:
www.JoeUecker.com
Email:
Joe@JoeUecker.com |
