The “Stem Cell Research and Cures” Initiative:

A Closer Look at the Ballot Language

By Robert F. Onder, M.D.

An initiative to create a constitutional amendment known as the “Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative” will very likely appear on the ballot this November. This is the third of a series of articles on this topic. It is important that every Missourian oppose this Initiative that would: 1) create a constitutional right to clone human embryos and kill them for research, 2) remove existing protections for human embryos from Missouri state law, and 3) require Missouri taxpayers to pay for this immoral research. The purpose of this article is to take a closer look at the ballot language, which abounds with deceptions, so that readers will be armed to fight this radical and anti-life Initiative.

The Initiative is promoted “to ensure that Missouri patients have access to stem cell research therapies and cures” and “that Missouri researchers can conduct stem cell research in this state.” The fact is that Missouri patients do have access to stem cell therapies and cures, and Missouri researchers can conduct stem cell research. My last article (MetroVoice, May 2006) looked at the current state of adult stem cell research, which is ethical and has already been used to treat more than 65 different diseases, and embryonic stem cell research, which kills human embryos and has not been used in a single research trial in humans, much less produced a cure. Nevertheless, there are no legal restrictions on any kind of stem cell research in Missouri, not even embryonic stem cell research.

The true purpose of the Initiative is to create a constitutional right to do human cloning research, which some Missouri legislators have tried to ban. The problem for the pro-cloners, however, is that 8 out of 9 Missourians oppose human cloning. They therefore wrote their Initiative as if it were a cloning ban. The fifth line of the “ballot title,” which will likely appear on the November 2006 ballot, states that the Initiative “bans human cloning or attempted cloning.” What voters will not see is paragraph 6 (2) of the Initiative, which defines cloning as implantation of the cloned human embryo in a woman’s uterus. The pro-cloners appear to have made a conscious decision to try to trick Missouri voters into thinking they are voting to ban cloning. In reality the Initiative does just the opposite: it creates a right to clone human embryos, as long as they are killed by “harvesting” their stem cells. This has lead many to call this a “clone-and-kill” Initiative.

One concern raised by many who oppose human cloning research is that these experiments require large numbers of human eggs, and that our daughters and granddaughters will be the ones exploited to provide these eggs. Egg “donation” requires using powerful hormones to stimulate a woman’s ovaries to produce multiple eggs, and eggs are gathered by a surgical procedure. Anywhere from 5 to 14% of women undergoing this process experience severe complications, which may include severe pain, bleeding, stroke, infertility, and even death. Why would any woman volunteer for such a procedure? Usually women are lured by ads in college newspapers offering them a large amount of money, from a few thousand dollars to as much as $35,000. Since many people are uneasy about this buying and selling of human eggs, the Initiative pretends to ban the selling of human eggs for “valuable consideration.” But in paragraph 6 (17) it defines valuable consideration as not including money paid to a woman by a “fertilization clinic.” It is these clinics that do the egg harvesting, so the ban on selling human eggs is illusory. If cloning research were conducted on a widespread basis, it would guarantee that scientists would aggressively prey on our daughters to “donate” their eggs, at considerable risk to their present health and future fertility.

The Initiative also prohibits our Legislature and our local governments from passing laws that “prevent, restrict, obstruct, or discourage” cloning or other embryo research. Any regulation in a sense “restricts” or “discourages” the activity being regulated. Medical research is ordinarily regulated very extensively, for the protection of the medical research subject and society. This section of the Initiative essentially prohibits our state or local officials from regulating cloning research. What industry wouldn’t want a blanket exemption from regulation? The pro-cloners would point out that the Initiative requires “expert oversight.” But who are the experts? The experts would undoubtedly be the cloning researchers themselves; the fox would be guarding the henhouse!

Finally, the Initiative would require all of us to pay for this immoral research. A long and convoluted paragraph of the Initiative states that no state or local government body shall “eliminate, reduce, deny or withhold any public funds … to a person that … lawfully conducts stem cell research…” The Initiative would therefore remove cloning and other embryo-destroying research from the budget process and give a blank check to the cloning researchers. At very least the Initiative would result in litigation every time some cloning researcher is denied a grant for his favorite research project. Missourians should keep the budget process under the control of our elected officials, not some unaccountable, elitist cloning researcher and his lawyers.

A final issue is that the Initiative would create an amendment to the Missouri Constitution. This would make correction of the abusive and deceptive provisions above extremely difficult. This raises the question: does an amendment favoring a particular industry, the human embryo experimentation industry, belong in our Constitution?

In short, the so-called “Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative” is deceptive in numerous areas, but its intent is simple: The Initiative would create a constitutional right to clone human embryos and kill them for experiments, and it would require Missouri taxpayers to pay for this immoral research. I encourage all Missourians to oppose this proposal in a number of ways: 1) Pray for wisdom for your fellow voters and those who lead the fight against this Initiative, 2) Be sure you are registered to vote and vote NO on this Initiative, 3) Join Missourians Against Human Cloning, www.NoCloning.org, a coalition of Missourians organized to fight this Initiative, 4) Spread the word to your family, friends, and fellow church members, and 5) donate your time, talent, and treasure to fight this Initiative.

Robert F. Onder, M.D., J.D. is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO. He is also on the board of directors for Missourians Against Human Cloning and a Republican candidate in the upcoming August 8th primary election for the Missouri House of Representatives District 13 (Lake St. Louis and Wentzville). For more information regarding Missourians Against Human Cloning visit their web site at www.nocloning.com. For information regarding Dr. Onder’s campaign call 636-561-8968 or visit www.bobonder.com.