Stem-Cell Research Initiative
Permits All Cloning

By Mary E. Traeger

The new constitutional proposal coming from pro-cloning advocates is by far the greatest threat to the sanctity of early human life that we have faced in Missouri. The Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures has been formed to tie the hands of the citizens and the Missouri Legislature from regulating or banning human cloning or embryonic stem-cell research.  The Coalition’s initiative is called the “Missouri Stem-cell Research and Cures Initiative.”

The language emanating from this Coalition blurs the facts of when life begins and obscures the meaning of human cloning.  This well-financed group of biotech interests and private individuals plans to gather 150,000 signatures on petitions to amend the Missouri Constitution. They mean to place a referendum on the 2006 Missouri ballot to keep all human stem-cell research “permitted by federal law” allowable in Missouri, regardless of the funding source. This is an unprecedented, over-the-top endeavor by the biotech industry to shield itself from moral or legal restrictions and would provide permission to ignore universal ethical codes that protect humans from dangerous experimentation.

“While the group’s initiative does not directly request government money for cloning or embryonic stem-cell research, it does prohibit state and local governments from denying money to those who do this research and thus potentially could allow the biotech industry access to public funds. This amendment is really all about destroying human life using unethical research with the likelihood of being backed by public money,” observes Beverly Ehlen, Northeast Area Director for Concerned Women for America of Missouri.  “It should go against the grain of every Missouri taxpayer that a private entity could potentially receive public dollars to fund this morally disputable research,” Ehlen adds.

When presenting its proposal, the Coalition stated that this initiative was necessary to “prevent state-level bans of any type of stem-cell research and cures allowed under federal law, including those involving adult stem cells and early, or embryonic, stem cells, from the somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) process and from leftover fertility clinic embryos that would otherwise be discarded.”

SCNT is a fancy euphemism designed to fool people. Advocates for cloning realized that people do not like the idea of cloning, so they made up a new name. They vehemently deny that SCNT is cloning, yet the phrase SCNT describes the technique for cloning.

Under this amendment, human embryos can be created through cloning for the sole purpose of experimentation. It also treats embryos created by parents desperate to have children as property that can be used as research material. We are told that treatments and cures are worth the cost of destroying massive numbers of little humans. If this amendment should pass, it would overthrow any current Missouri laws that protect embryos waiting to be implanted in a mother’s womb and born into a loving family.

Not just a religious belief or moral conviction – it is a scientific fact that human life begins at fertilization.  Currently, Missouri’s statute states, “The life of each human being begins at conception.”  Proponents of this initiative, however, obscure the fact that embryos, even those created through in vitro fertilization and any that might be created through cloning, would have their body parts harvested. Or they would be experimented upon – riddled with disease for scientists to observe the effects or used to test drugs.

Regarding proposing a human cloning ban for Missouri, state Sen. John Loudon (R-Ballwin) asks, “Will we allow scientists to bully us into drawing ethical boundary lines where one small group of researchers wants it or will the people through their elected officials retain the right to set limits?”

With all the promising fanfare, to date, NO therapies have been created using embryonic stem cells by any method. In fact, it has proven so dangerous in animals, causing deadly tumors, that it has not been attempted yet in humans.

While embryonic research lags behind, adult stem cells – which can be ethically obtained without harming the donor – are already successfully treating patients with more than 65 different diseases and disabilities.  Adult cells can be found in bone marrow, liver, skin, intestine, brain and even fat tissue, in addition umbilical cords, placentas and amniotic fluid.

A “right” to clone and kill should never be added to the Missouri Constitution.  There is no room for nuance, compromise or change.  The only way to change an amendment once it is added to the constitution is to put another amendment on the ballot.  This procedure circumvents the job of the legislature to make laws.

ADF Files Suit

Attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed suit on November 23rd on behalf of five Missouri residents and a group called Missourians Against Human Cloning, which was formed by Larry Weber, executive director of the Missouri Catholic Conference, to prevent the human cloning initiative from appearing on the November 7, 2006, General Election ballot. The title of the ballot initiative purports to ban human cloning, when in fact it would change the Missouri Constitution to allow human cloning and funding for its research.

“Election ballots should be neutral and not be designed to intentionally mislead voters,” said David C. LaPlante, legal counsel for the ADF.  “The title of the ballot initiative deceptively tells voters that the proposed amendment would ‘ban human cloning or attempted cloning,’ when in actuality it does the exact opposite.”

The initiative uses language such as “somatic cell nuclear transfer” and “in vitro blastocysts,” terms that are unfamiliar to most voters.  If the initiative appears on the ballot of next year’s general election and passes, it will effectively amend the Missouri Constitution to protect and expressly allow cloning which would create embryonic human beings that will be destroyed in the course of ‘scientific experiments’.  The bill would also effectively limit government officials’ ability to withhold funding for cloning research.

“If the people of Missouri are going to vote on this issue, they should at least be given a fair chance to vote their conscience on matters of life and death,” said LaPlante. “The voters deserve to know that the proposed ballot initiative would create a constitutional right to treat human life as a commodity and raw material for unethical human experimentation.”

Both Secretary of State Robin Carnahan and State Auditor Claire McCaskill have been named as defendants in the lawsuit, as their responsibilities include conducting elections and overseeing the ballot initiatives put forth to the voters. The full text of the complaint in the case, Missourians Against Human Cloning v. Carnahan, which was filed in the Circuit Court of Cole County Missouri can be read at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/MvCcomplaint.pdf.

At press time a complaint requesting an injunction to stop the gathering of signatures had been filed by the ADF but a ruling had yet to be handed down by the Circuit Court.

St. Louis Catholic Church Responds

On Sunday, November 27th the issue of embryonic stem cell research reached Missouri’s Catholic churches when parishioners were told not to support the initiative or this kind of medical research.

Rev. Thomas Keller of the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis said, “The destruction of human life, even in it’s embryonic form, is something that is evil that we don’t want to participate in. We want to educate our folks that there’s more to the story than simply saying this is a type of research on human cells.”

The Catholic Church supports adult stem research, but not embryonic stem cell research.

Mary E. Traeger is the Media Coordinator for the Missouri chapter of Concerned Women for America.