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Missouri Cloning Fight Not Over Yet say Pro-life Legislators

Initial two-thirds support for measure was brought down to 51% at time of vote

By Hilary White

JEFFERSON CITY, November 10, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – With the passage of Tuesday’s constitutional amendment in Missouri allowing commercial human cloning and embryonic stem cell research, pro-life advocates are vowing to bring the fight to the 2008 election with a ballot measure.

Although the measure passed with a razor-thin majority of 51-49%, pro-life advocates are hopeful. Despite the $30 million financing of the “yes” campaign, supplied largely by the biotechnology industry, opponents succeeded in reducing the nearly two-thirds support for the measure down to 51%.

“If it's up to me we'll start forming an organization to collect the signatures right now, and come back with an amendment to repeal it in '08," said Rep. Wayne Cooper, R-Camdenton.

The issue became central to the campaign for the mid-term election with a controversial celebrity guest spot in supporting embryonic research featuring actor and Parkinson’s sufferer Michael J. Fox lending fuel to the fires.

Sen. John Loudon, who is likely to support a repeal of the measure, told media, “When the body politic is this divided and impassioned on both sides, I don't think you can put it to bed so easily.”

As with most such legal ‘bans’ the proposal was worded to make voters believe that they were banning human cloning in a measure that would, on the contrary, have enshrined the right to public funding for cloners, on the condition that the cloned human being be killed before implantation.

The language of proposal was so questionable it was taken to a Missouri court of appeals in early 2006 where it was revealed that the text had been written by cloning proponents who stood to gain enormous financial benefit.

Nikolas T. Nikas, president and general counsel of the Bioethics Defense Fund, said in court, “This ballot summary is grossly deceptive to Missouri voters. It's like saying that an Initiative 'bans the death penalty' when the measure actually bans only the use of the electric chair, while creating constitutional protection for death by lethal injection.”

“Amendment 2” allows human cloning, the buying and selling of gametes including women’s ova, and grants private biotechnology companies access to public funding.

Missouri Citizens Duped into Permitting Human Cloning
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06110801.html

Actor Jim Caviezel Battles Michael J. Fox on Embryonic Stem Cell Video Ads
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/oct/06102501.html

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