Missouri
Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative |
August 1, 2006Stem cell foes rally in capital
Opponents compare research to slavery.By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER
of The Associated Press Published Tuesday, August 1, 2006JEFFERSON CITY - Mixing religious fervor with scientific skepticism, opponents of a proposed constitutional amendment to protect embryonic stem cell research gathered yesterday for the first in a series of statewide rallies.
Hundreds of people who packed a Jefferson City church last night heard Alan Keyes, a former Republican presidential candidate and United Nations ambassador, compare the contentious research technique to the worst excesses of Nazi Germany and American slavery.
A researcher from Washington University in St. Louis questioned the largely unfulfilled promise of embryonic stem cells in contrast to ongoing research with adult stem cells derived from bone marrow, umbilical cords and other sources.
And an evangelical Baptist pastor from Texas said the Missouri ballot initiative, if approved Nov. 8, would exploit the women whose donated eggs would be needed to fuel such work. The Rev. Rick Scarborough urged the audience at Concord Baptist Church to work to defeat the measure known as the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative. "If the church is silent, then she will get what she deserves," Scarborough said. "But if the church rises up, then we will turn back evil forces, and we will be successful."
The proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution seeks to legally protect stem cell "research, therapies and cures" permitted under federal law - a response to unsuccessful legislative efforts to criminalize such activities.
It also stipulates a ban on human cloning, defined as an attempt to implant into a woman a scientifically created embryo that did not come from a sperm and egg.
Scarborough, Keyes and other opponents suggested the title and ballot language are deceptive and misleading for failing to classify a certain form of embryonic stem cell research, known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, as the scientific equivalent of human cloning.
Under that procedure, the nucleus of an unfertilized human egg is replaced with the nucleus from a skin or nerve cell. The altered egg then is stimulated to grow in a lab dish, and researchers remove the resulting stem cells.
Keyes invoked what he called the Declaration of Independence’s guiding moral principle: that all men are created equal. Like a human fetus, a human embryo deserves those same legal and societal protections, he said.
Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures | TV Documentary |July 2006
Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures presents stem cell information |November ballot initiative prompts
Park Hills-Leadington Chamber to invite group to speakBy PAULA BARR
Daily Journal Staff WriterPARK HILLS - At their monthly meeting,
Park Hills - Leadington Chamber of Commerce
members heard about an initiative that would amend the Missouri Constitution to protect the legality of stem cell research.Lindsay Holwick, outreach coordinator for the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, presented information about stem cell research and discussed the
Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative |that will be on the November 2006 statewide ballot.Passage of the initiative would ensure that researchers in the state could continue to do stem cell research without fears that legislators would pass bills to outlaw research and make criminals of researchers, Holwick said.
“The amendment to the Constitution would protect stem cell research in this state so legislators couldn’t ban it with future legislation,” she explained.
It the initiative fails, research in the state would continue unless laws were passed to end it. Previous, unsuccessful attempts to pass such legislation in Missouri and other states included assignment of criminal charges against anyone who participates in research, Holwick said.
Some researchers - including one of the doctors who worked with Christopher Reeve - have left the state because of the repeated attempts to ban their work, Holwick said. On the other hand, there are organizations ready to grant large amounts of money to research programs in the state if the initiative passes, she added.
The proposed initiative would protect stem cell research as allowed by current federal and state laws. It would require the state to follow any future federal stem cell research legislation.
The initiative would ban human cloning and
prohibit the sale of human eggs
and embryos.
No tax money would be raised or used for research as a result of passage of the initiative, according to Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures.
Medical researchers believe that stem cells could provide cures for diseases and injuries including diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, heart disease, ALS, sickle cell disease and spinal cord injuries, Holwick said.
“Stem cells are the building blocks of the body and they make more than 200 types of specialized cells,” she told the Chamber.
“There are two types - adult and embryonic.”
Adult stem cells are found in body tissues, umbilical cords and placentas. They can be turned into a limited number of specialized cells, and have been used for approximately 40 years in bone marrow treatments for leukemia and to treat other blood disorders.
Embryonic stem cells, also referred to as early stem cells, were discovered about eight years ago.
They are usually 4-5 days old, and have the potential to become any type of cell or human tissue.
Embryonic stem cells are found in leftover fertilized eggs used for in vitro fertilization.
Research using these eggs has generated opposition from the Catholic Church. “We are not against stem cell research, we are against embryonic stem cell research,” said Deacon Mike Burch of Immaculate Conception Church in Park Hills and St. John’s Catholic Church in Bismarck. Burch was not at the Chamber meeting, but is well versed in the Catholic stance on the issue.
“We believe that life begins at conception, and an embryo is a human being. The problem is, the initiative doesn’t separate types of stem cell research.”
Embryonic stem cells also can be developed through a process called
Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer.
In that process, the nucleus is removed from an unfertilized human egg and is replaced by the nucleus of a specialized cell. The resulting cells will have the same genetic makeup of the person from whom the nucleus came, and can be used to treat that person’s disease or condition without risking rejection.
Burch said the Catholic Church also questions the idea of embryonic stem cells as a cure-all.
“They’ve allowed people to conclude that this is the cure for cancer and other diseases, but no cures have been made using embryonic stem cells,” Burch contended. “But cures have been made with other stem cells.”
Researchers believe that embryonic cells could be used to cure many diseases, including juvenile diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and spinal cord injuries. Years of research most likely would be necessary to develop theories about embryonic cells, Holwick explained. The initiative would allow Missouri to do that research, she added. “The research will go on in this country and around the world regardless of what Missourians decide,” Holwick said. “It’s just a matter of whether we want to be on that playing field.”
Claire McCaskill : http://claireonline.com/ | http://auditor.mo.gov/ |
The career most threatened by the stem cell issue is that of Sen. Jim Talent, a Missouri Republican who voted against the expanded funding. Polls show him neck-and-neck with Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill, now Missouri's auditor. McCaskill rarely misses an opportunity to talk up stem cell research, and she does it in conservative farm country, as well as in urban Kansas City and St. Louis.Adding to the drama, Missouri is home to the Stowers Institute, which wants to go full bore on embryonic stem cell research. A world-class research center, Stowers has warned that it will not build a second campus in Kansas City if Missouri lawmakers make therapeutic cloning of embryos a felony — which some have repeatedly tried to do.
A ballot referendum this November gives Missouri voters a chance to end the threats against this research. Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative |
The Stowers Institute for Medical Research
seeks more effective means of preventing and curing disease through basic research on genes and proteins that control fundamental processes of cellular life.
Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer by William Neaves, PhD | PDF File |
Stowers Institute for Medical Research |
Missouri Roundtable for Life : http://moroundtable.org/about.html |
The Missouri Roundtable has conducted a close, word by word scrutiny of the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Amendment. Our purpose is to clarify for voters the precise meaning and potential impact of this amendment if it should be enacted.The definition of a blastocyst in the text of the initiative differs from section 188.015.6 of Missouri law, which states that an unborn child is considered "the offspring of human beings from the moment of conception until birth and at every stage of its biological development, including the human conceptus, zygote, morula, blastocyst, embryo and fetus." The initiative’s text, however, lays out that a blastocyst is "a small mass of cells that results from cell division, caused either by fertilization or by somatic cell nuclear transfer, that has not been implanted in a uterus." The fact that a blastocyst is referred to as a "mass of cells" shows that "it’s not defined as a human being." The text of the initiative states that "no stem cells may be taken from a human blastocyst more than 14 days after cell division begins."