Stem cell measure 'today's Roe versus Wade'

The proposed amendment to Missouri's constitution that would ban human cloning and enable embryonic stem cell research looks good on paper. Even some opponents admit as much.

But upon closer inspection, opponents find a great deal to dislike about the amendment, and at a forum sponsored by Asleep Know More and the Salt Fork Pachyderm Club Thursday, Aug. 24, representatives of Missourians Against Human Cloning spelled out the problems they see with the proposed law.

The main speaker, W. Scott Magill, a Springfield obstetrician and gynecologist, said the stakes for the November ballot were high.

"This is a political issue. It's a moral issue. It's today's Roe versus Wade," he said. "This is an issue that will affect the future of humanity."

Magill said he believes the amendment text is full of misleading information and the number one deception is that it appears to ban human cloning but would actually create a loophole allowing cloning-related research to continue.

"That sounds good," he said. "I dare say most people in Missouri will vote for it if they don't know the truth."

A December poll found that Missourians favored passage of the amendment 68 percent to 30 percent. Magill said getting more information out could help turn that around.

The loophole in Magill's view involves shifting the definition of cloning.

"They are hijacking embryo transfer and calling it cloning," he said.

Embryonic transfer is the process of planting a fertilized embryo in a woman's uterus, he said. By locating the term "cloning" at that point in the process, he explained, the use of embryonic cells prior to that point is no longer considered cloning and would be protected under the amendment.

The second deception identified by Magill is the provision in the amendment that bans the production of human blastocysts solely for the purpose of stem cell research. Magill contends that human blastocysts are humans regardless of the intent that produced them and should not be used in research.

The third deception Magill identified is in the part of the amendment that forbids buying or selling human eggs or blastocysts for the purpose using them in stem cell research. He said medical research businesses will find ways around that provision and that many women, especially the young and the poor, will be enticed to allow their eggs to be harvested for research purposes, a process that can put stress on their bodies and increase risks to their health, he said.

The amendment is politically dangerous, Magill said, because it could set a precedent that would undermine democracy. He noted that, if passed, the amendment would alter 45 other places in the Missouri constitution and that it would limit patient's rights and create a new drain on tax dollars that voters would be unable to stop without passing another constitutional amendment.

A volunteer with Missourians Against Human Cloning, Mitch Hubbard of Fulton, a 1987 Marshall High School graduate, spoke following Magill and noted that although opposition to the amendment has been portrayed as a conservative Christian issue, it should be a bipartisan effort because the threat to women's rights and the increased power in the hands of big medical research firms are issues liberals and progressives care about.

On the Net:

www.nocloning.org

www.missouricures.com

www.sos.mo.gov/elections/2006petitions/p...

Contact Eric Crump at

marshallfaith@socket.net