I just had a (loud) discussion with a pro-life friend who told me what his church is telling people about this amendment. Now, this guy is intelligent and literate, but has fully bought into the Bible-as-inerrant-literal-truth philosophy. Maybe you’ve read Erich’s Missouri Amendment 2 entry [1] from April. Maybe not. Here is the amendment text. [2]
I had wondered why they started pushing this amendment so early in the season. I am always skeptical of any product that is loudly ballyhooed. In this case, I guess it’s because they knew the level of Red State resistance they would be up against.
My friend has been told (and I’ve seen billboards that say) women will be selling eggs for research. But section 38(d)2.(4) says:
(4) No person may, for valuable consideration, purchase or sell human blastocysts or eggs for stem cell research or stem cell therapies and cures.
They are taught in these political rallies (Sunday services) that to implant a nucleus in an egg is the definition of cloning. And that cloning is evil.
They have it gently drummed into them that, although there have been proven cures derived from adult (umbilical cord) stem cells, no cure has been created from fetal stem cells in 30 years of research! I tried to explain the difference between Pure Research and Applied Research, and between theoretical possibilities and the current state of the art. No luck.
Their real argument is that anything in the sequence of
{human zygote – blastocyst – embryo – fetus – child – adult}
is a person imbued with spirit and inalienable rights. This attitude is that, if you would allow a 20-cell blastocyst to be mutilated, you might as well join the Dr. Mengele school of Medical Research and wear a swastika. Killing a blastocyst in research is evil, whereas disposing of leftover embryos from fertility clinics is a regrettable necessity for lack of willing donor wombs.
I expect that this amendment will follow the pro-life/pro-choice demographic pretty closely. The Republicans couldn’t have picked a better issue to get out the vote for their Senatorial candidate in a few weeks. This issue from back in April must be grumpy’s October Surprise [3].
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