Groups Spends $1.3M to Promote Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Anyone who claims that this research is not about money is simply not in touch with reality. This $1,300,000 expediture to collect signatures does not include the current ads running on TV (and I presume, radio). These ads, designed to evoke an emotional rather than an intellectual response are pure bunk - they make me want to wretch! They are full of lies and deceptions! Though tremendous advances are being made in the area of Adult Stem Cell Research, these are largely ignored by the press and by those who have been sold a false and illusory hope in something which has yet to offer any promise for a cure, let alone that both ESCR and somatic cell nuclear transfer are inherently immoral and unethical as they rely on destroying human life to achieve their ends.

..the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures relied on paid professional signature gatherers to collect the signatures necessary to qualify its ballot initiative, which also allows some forms of human cloning.

The group spent almost $1.3 million to pay signature gatherers, according to an Associated Press report. The money went to an out-of-state firm -- the Michigan-based National Petition Management, which hires people to obtain signatures.

And, of course, the signature gatherers misled the public in order to get them to sign on the dotted line..."This is a petition to ban human cloning. Would you like to sign it so we can vote on it in November?"

Granted, the signature gatherers may have been lied to by the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, the group responsible for the massive deception. One can only conclude that many of the signatures were gathered by fraud and deceit - I know - I heard it myself.

Jaci Winship, director of Missourians Against Human Cloning, accused backers of buying a place on the Missouri ballot. She said backers have received millions from the Stowers research center for the proposal and would "whatever is necessary to deceive the voters into supporting this unethical amendment."

When it comes right down to its core, truth, morality and ethics are thrown out the window for the chance to acquire more wealth and potential patent rights...this behavior is reprehensible.

Meanwhile, almost all of the $10 million the pro-cloning group raised through May 17 came from two people -- James and Virginia Stowers. The group has received only about 5 percent of its funds from average Missouri residents.

Not too surprising...