IN FEBRUARY 2005, the Montana State Legislature passed a bill that urged U.S. President George W Bush and the U.S. Congress to support stem cell research. The bill was titled Senate Joint Ré solution [Page 346]No. 18 and was a combined resolution of the Montana Senate and House of Representatives. The bill stressed that the contemporary lines of stem cells were contaminated and could therefore not be used therapeutically; it also cited the states of California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Wisconsin for either having already established stem cell research centers or for establishing groundwork to do so and noted that polls showed that the majority of American citizens favored stem cell research.

On July 18, 2006, the U.S. Senate convened to vote on a ...