Deception on Cloning

Sunday’s New York Times (10/15/06) laid out the purposeful deception that is being practiced on Missouri voters. The very reason for the Amendment was to promote cloning, and yet the ballot will say (without further clarification) that the Amendment bans cloning. See the Times excerpts below (my emphasis added):

The largest group in the state promoting stem cell research [is] the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, which is responsible for putting the initiative on the ballot....

The group’s chairman [is] Donn Rubin....

The ballot measure would guarantee that any stem cell research that is legal under federal law could be performed in Missouri. Mr. Rubin said the coalition sought to get the issue on the ballot in direct response to efforts for years by conservative lawmakers to ban the cloning procedure involved in some forms of the research.

In the most controversial form of stem cell research, embryos are cloned and their stem cells are removed....

“This is the big one, this is the biggest pro-life issue voters have ever been confronted with,” said Pam Fichter, the president of Missouri Right to Life. “This is the people deciding whether they want to enshrine in the constitution the right to clone and kill human embryos.”