Rep. Beverly Woolley, R-Houston, co-author of legislation supporting stem cell research, starts a round of applause for other supporters of the bill on Wednesday afternoon on the steps of the Capitol.

Activists, legislators and religious leaders met on the steps of the Capitol on Wednesday to promote legislation aimed at protecting the legality of embryonic stem cell research by setting ethical guidelines for the practice.

House Bill 2704, bipartisan legislation filed on March 6, already has the support of 64 House members, according to Texans for the Advancement of Medical Research, an organization supporting of the bill.

Supporters of embryonic stem cell research stress the potential of embryonic stem cells to treat Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and spinal cord injuries.

According to the National Institutes of Health, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, stem cells have the potential to develop into many different cell types in the body, such as muscle cells, red blood cells or brain cells. Regenerative medicine is not limited to embryonic stem cell research. Adult stem cells extracted from bone marrow, umbilical cord blood and fat cells could also achieve significant medical advances.

Margaret J. Sampson, an attorney with a doctorate in molecular biology, said there is reportedly a pool of approximately 400,000 unused blastocysts, or embryos of about 150 cells, potentially available for stem cell research. These blastocysts frequently are unused embryos from fertility clinics that would otherwise be discarded and ultimately be flushed down the drain. No one will ever implant them into a woman’s uterus, and so that is really the pool that embryos would be drawn from.

Still recent Gallup polling found 61 percent of Americans consider stem cell research using human embryos to be morally acceptable, while 30 percent say it is morally unacceptable.

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