Missouri Stem-Cell Initiative Permits All Cloning

By Mary E. Traeger of Concerned Women for America

The new Missouri 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.
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SCNT [somatic cell nuclear transfer] 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.
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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.
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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.

The full article is here.
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Take action: Missouri citizens: Contact your state legislators and urge them to draft a bill placing a total ban on human cloning.
Refuse to sign any petition that would protect embryonic stem-cell research.
Call CWA of Missouri for a speaker for your church or civic group to present the facts about embryonic stem cells and the exploitive destruction of life through clone and kill research. CWA of Missouri: 417-336-6284.

If you live in another state: Keep on the alert for pro-cloning laws and amendments in your state, and check CWA’s Web site regularly for developments.

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If I understand this correctly, there are a number of well-placed and wll-financed individuals behind this effort to feed at the public trough while promoting or engaging in practices which would make Hitler and his group of mad scientists dance with glee. I fear that this is going to be a major battle in the State.