Cloning
and Restore Legislative Responsibilities
News
Commentary by Jim Day
As many readers know, on December 19, 2006
two stalwart champions of life, State Representative Jim Lembke (R-South St.
Louis County) and State Senator Matt Bartle (R-Lee's Summit, MO) announced the
introduction of a resolution (constitutional amendment) to ban human cloning in
Missouri; something which the incredibly deceptive Amendment 2 (that was narrowly
passed by a 51 to 49 percent margin this past November) failed to do.
Just prior to going to press with our
February Pro-Life issue, we found out
that the initial resolution had been adjusted. According to Rep. Lembke, the
purpose of the new Lembke-Bartle resolution will be two-fold: 1. To restore the
legislative responsibilities and prerogatives of taxation, appropriations, and
legislation to their rightful place, which is under the purview of our duly
elected representatives and, 2. To prohibit ALL HUMAN CLONING in the State of
Missouri and thus close the loophole that was purposefully placed in the
Missouri Constitution via passage of Amendment 2 that permits human cloning.
At press time the following excerpt was
obtained by the MetroVoice from the
draft text of the new joint resolution which Rep. Lembke and Sen. Bartle are
proposing. (Please be advised that through the legislative process this
language may change.)
Excerpt
from the Lembke-Bartle House Joint Resolution:
Section 38(e). 1 At all times, the general assembly of this
state retains the right to enact laws concerning health care research for
the people of this state and to control taxation, 
appropriations,
and use of public resources for health care research.
2. It is unlawful to use human cloning, or any
stem cells derived from human cloning in stem cell research. For the purpose of this section and section
38(d) of this article, “human cloning” means the creation of a human embryo by
any means other than the fertilization of a human egg by a human sperm.
3. The provisions of this section supersede any
provision of section 38(d) of this article that is inconsistent with this
section.
A True Ban on Human Cloning
Also, to say that a 10 to 12 day old embryo
(created through a cloning procedure) is not a clone in the research lab, when
the very same embryo would be a clone if it had been implanted in a uterus is ludicrous.
To clone means “to create a genetic copy
of.” This is accomplished by a procedure termed “somatic cell nuclear
transfer.” In somatic cell nuclear
transfer, a donor cell nucleus containing the complete human genetic code is
transferred into a human egg whose own nucleus has been removed, thereby
creating a cloned embryo. The false definition of cloning in Amendment 2 is
intentionally contrived to exclude somatic cell nuclear transfer from the
definition of cloning, when in fact somatic cell nuclear transfer is the
technical term for cloning.
The true definition of cloning is
universally accepted by leading medical and scientific organizations. The
National Academies of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, the International Society for Stem Cell Research, and the
American Medical Association recognize somatic cell nuclear transfer as
cloning.
Amendment 2 concocted a false definition of
cloning to make the cloning of human beings legal in the State of Missouri.
Restoring Legislative Responsibilities
Paragraph
1 of the new Lembke-Bartle resolution is aimed at Subsections 5 and 7 of
Amendment 2.
Amendment
2’s Subsection 7 states: “The provisions
of this section and of all state and local laws, regulations, rules, charters,
ordinances, and other governmental actions shall be construed in favor of the
conduct of stem cell research and the provision of stem cell therapies and
cures. “No state or local governmental
body or official shall eliminate, reduce, deny, or withhold any public funds
provided or eligible to be provided to a person that (i) lawfully conducts stem
cell research or provides stem cell therapies and cures.” Subsection 5 actually expands upon the
second sentence of Subsection 7 relating to legislative control of public
funding (our tax dollars).
Representative
Lembke stated that one of the new resolution’s objectives was, “to restore the
legislative responsibilities and prerogatives of taxation, appropriations, and
legislation to their rightful
place, which is under the purview of our duly elected representatives.” That’s
a nice and diplomatic way to put it. I, however, would put it in different terms.
I would say that Subsection 7 of Amendment 2
needs to be changed because it is diabolically tyrannical and eliminates the
voice of “We the people” through our elected representatives. In my book,
this paragraph is a direct assault upon our Constitutional Republican form of
government and is totally unconstitutional to begin with.
Why do I make such a statement? First, we do
not live in a dictatorship or fascist state. Privileged, elitist groups – such
as the biotech industry, the chamber of commerce or a coalition of university
researchers - are not supposed to have
total control over the legislative process. Our form of government is called a
Constitutional Republic. In a Constitutional Republic we the people elect
officials, i.e. our governor, state representatives, state senators, mayors,
etc., who are supposed to represent ALL
of the people and govern according to the limits placed upon them by
the people in accordance with the Constitution that limits their powers.
Two of the primary responsibilities which we the people have delegated to our
elected representatives are: 1. To legislate
– make and enact laws that, as the Preamble to the Constitution says, “...establish
Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote
the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our
Posterity....;” and 2. To control and have oversight of
how and where our tax dollars are spent. Cloning human beings to murder them
for their stem-cells is not ‘just’ nor does it promote the general welfare of
the people – particularly those who are murdered.
Subsection 7 of Amendment 2 presently
negates BOTH of those responsibilities which we the people have
delegated to our elected representatives.
Allow me to put it in simpler terms. The
first sentence of Subsection 7 in Amendment 2 dictates that any state or local
law, regulation, rule, ordinance or any other governmental legislative action must
favor any type of stem-cell research - which includes embryonic stem-cell
research. That means that the reverse – any legislation that is not
favorable to all types of stem-cell research – cannot be acted upon by our
representatives and thus makes it unconstitutional for we the people to have any
input regarding this issue.
If that’s not bad enough, in addition to
removing our elected officials from public policy making on this issue, this
tyrannical sentence also puts any dispute as to whether or not any action is deemed
‘unfavorable’ to stem-cell research by the elitists, into the hands of Missouri’s
unelected judges to make any final determinations. Remember folks – this tyranny is now part of the Missouri Constitution!
The second sentence in the Subsection 7
paragraph (which is bolded above) took away our constitutional rights through
our elected representatives to have anything to say about taxation and
appropriating funds from the Missouri budget (our tax dollars) regarding all
types of stem-cell research.
Remember, we the people are the
government. We elect people to represent us who are supposed to wisely oversee
and spend our tax dollars. Amendment 2 removed us from the legislative process
by removing our elected representatives from the legislative process. It denies
our
ability to control where and how our tax dollars are spent when it
comes to stem-cell research – which, in the case of Amendment 2, made the
cloning of and killing of human beings constitutional.
Folks, the evil coalition of elitists who
spent over $30 million dollars to deceive Missourians into believing that
Amendment 2 prohibited human cloning and took away our Constitutional rights of
self-government through our elected officials must be stopped. Amendment 2 must
be stricken from the books because it is nothing short of tyranny and a death
sentence for countless human beings.
I urge everyone to contact their state representative
and state senator and tell them to support State Representative Jim Lembke
and Senator Bartle in their efforts to really prohibit human cloning in Missouri
and restore your right of self-government through your elected representatives.
