The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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August 22, 2007

Missouri: New proposal seeks to ban certain embryonic stem-cell research

The Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri’s battle over embryonic stem-cell research intensified Wednesday as a new group proposed a ballot measure seeking to outlaw a particular research method that voters narrowly endorsed just last year.

The group Cures Without Cloning launched its campaign by filing paperwork with the secretary of state’s office for a constitutional amendment targeted for the November 2008 ballot. It also set up a campaign finance committee through the Missouri Ethics Commission.

The effort comes just nine months after Missourians adopted a constitutional amendment guaranteeing that any federally allowed stem-cell research can occur in Missouri, including research using a controversial embryonic cloning technique.

Without specifically repealing last year’s measure, the new proposal attempts to reverse a key portion by creating a new definition for banned human cloning activities. It also would bar tax dollars from going to such cloning research.

As a result of the 2006 initiative, “the Missouri Constitution currently has confusing language, which allows the same method of cloning that was used to create Dolly the sheep,” said Dr. Lori Buffa, a St. Peters pediatrician serving as chairwoman for the new group. “The Cures Without Cloning initiative is meant to just make it clear that human cloning within the state of Missouri would be prohibited.”

The sponsors of last year’s ballot measure promised to vigorously defend it from being altered by what they dubbed a “fundamentally deceptive” initiative.

“This measure is anti-patient, anti-hope, anti-cures and completely unnecessary,” said Donn Rubin, chairman of the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures. “These anti-cures zealots are masquerading as pro-stem-cell advocates while banning some of the most promising stem-cell research and potentially lifesaving stem-cell cures.”

At issue is a procedure known scientifically as somatic cell nuclear transfer, in which a person’s cell is injected into a human egg, which is then stimulated to grow as if it had been fertilized by a sperm. Scientists remove the resulting stem cells for research, destroying the newly formed embryo.

There’s no indication anyone is Missouri actually is conducting such research. But proponents hope it could someday lead to treatments for such ailments as Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injuries.

Last year’s amendment made it a crime, punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, to “clone or attempt to clone a human being.” But its definition of human cloning allowed somatic cell nuclear transfer, so long as no one attempted to implant the cloned embryo in a woman’s uterus.

Opponents contend that definition is deceptive. They claim a cloned human exists the moment scientists create that embryo.

The new ballot initiative would add another cloning definition to the Missouri Constitution that would encompass — and ban — somatic cell nuclear transfer.

But it would not repeal the old definition, leaving contradicting sections in the constitution.

A spokesman for Cures Without Cloning claimed the new definition would merely expand the old one.

“It’s not conflicting with it as much as it adding on to the definition of what human cloning is,” said spokesman Curt Mercandante.

The new ballot proposal would not prohibit other methods of embryonic stem-cell research, including those conducted on embryos created — but never used — for in vitro fertilization.

By using the word “cures” in its name, the new group is hoping to stress that promising stem-cell research doesn’t need to depend on cloning techniques. Organizers said the new Missouri group is separate for an Overland Park, Kan., group bearing the same name.

The $30 million campaign for last year’s ballot measure was financed primarily by James and Virginia Stowers, cancer survivors who founded the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, which conducts stem-cell research.

Stowers Institute President and Chief Executive Officer William Neaves dismissed the backers of the new ballot proposal as “a handful of naysayers who want to rob Missouri citizens” of opportunities for cures.

“Embryonic stem-cell research is not human cloning,” Neaves said. “Embryonic stem cells, including those made by nuclear transfer, represent hope for millions of patients.”

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