Taxpayers Will Fund a Perpetual

Entitlement for Cloners

Amendment 2, the proposed cloning amendment on the Missouri ballot this November, will create a constitutional right to clone and destroy human embryos for research purposes. What many do not yet realize is that the language of the amendment will force Missouri taxpayers to directly fund cloning and embryo destruction with absolutely no legislative control and with no possibility of ever reducing funding.

Subsection 7 of the Amendment states: “No state or local law, regulation, rule, charter, ordinance, or other governmental action shall (i) prevent, restrict, obstruct, or discourage any stem cell research… or (ii) create disincentives for any person to engage in or otherwise associate with such research…”

This is astoundingly broad language. NO governmental action can discourage stem cell

research, including cloning, in ANY WAY, regardless of the intent of the governmental action even if the intent has nothing to do with cloning. Any attempt to prevent, restrict, reduce, fail to commence, or refuse to increase funding for cloning are obvious discouragements to cloning and will therefore be unconstitutional.

This fact was even recognized by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which reported on March 30, 2006 that: “...a 2003 law… earmarked 25 percent of the state’s tobacco settlement money to the Life Sciences Trust Fund beginning in July. To steer clear of controversy, the law stipulated that none of the money could be used for projects involving ‘abortion services, human cloning, or prohibited human research’… The proposed constitutional amendment [Amendment 2] … would prevent the state from withholding research money to support [cloning and human embryo research].”

Thus legislative control over taxpayer funding of cloning is erased. Instead, a perpetual entitlement for cloners to taxpayer dollars is established… The taxpayers will be on the hook, without control, forever.

This article is posted on the Missouri Roundtable For Life web site at www.moroundtable.org. They may be reached by calling (314) 854-1381.