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10 Million Dollar Cloning Fraud by Illinois Governor Blagojevich

SPRINGFIELD, July 13, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - By an executive order, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich forestalled public debate on the moral admissibility of human embryonic research and awarded $10 million for research that would include the creation of clones, with the caveat that such embryonic children can only be created as long as they will not be allowed to live.

In the Governor's press conference, he claimed that the funding would not be used for cloning. But this claim rests upon a gross deception. The order uses a definition of 'cloning' that would allow any kind of clone to be created as long as it is not implanted into a woman. The Order leaves the door wide open for funding for creating clones, for using their parts, even, potentially, for having cloned human beings gestated in artificial wombs when such technology becomes available.

By means of manipulation of terms that only too familiar to pro-life opponents of cloning the Order specifically bans only "reproductive cloning" and defines "cloning" as implantation of the cloned embryo. In the Orwellian world of biotechnology lobbying, a non-existent distinction has been concocted between 'reproductive cloning' and 'research cloning,' with the former used as a scapegoat for public fears and the latter lauded as the key to solving the world's medical problems. In reality, however, the difference is imaginary. In the first, the cloned human being is allowed to live; in the second, he is torn apart for stem cells.

The Order states, "No funds …shall be used for research involving the reproductive cloning of a human being, fetuses from induced abortions or to create embryos through the combination of gametes solely for the purpose of research. As used in this Executive Order, 'cloning of a human being' means asexual human reproduction by implanting or attempting to implant the product of nuclear transplantation into a woman's uterus to initiate a human pregnancy."

This has become the most popular dodge in crafting state legislation to allow cloning for research and has been dubbed by pro-lifers as the "clone-and-kill" tactic. By manipulating the language used to describe the process and by playing on public ignorance and fears, California, New Jersey and Connecticut and now Illinois have allowed for the creation of publicly funded organ factories where people can be manufactured and killed for their parts.

The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity (CBHD) condemned the Governor's order pointing out that public funds would be better spent on adult stem cell research which has produced real results. Both the Center and the Illinois Family Institute (IFI) said that lives cannot be saved at the expense of other lives.

Pro-life activist and blogger, Jill Stanek, noted the cloning deception. She wrote, "That claim [of prohibiting cloning] is so false (or to give benefit of doubt, utterly and incredibly ignorant) that I can hardly sit still. And this is a critical point, because most Americans are against human cloning."

To express concerns to the Governor:
http://www.illinois.gov/gov/contactthegovernor.cfm

Read Governor Blagojevich's Executive Order:
http://www.illinois.gov/gov/execorder.cfm?eorder=39

Read Jill Stanek on the Order:
http://www.jillstanek.com/

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