Missouri Right to Life Questions Governor Matt Blunt's Pro-Life Credentials

The Board of Directors of Missouri Right to Life announced today that Governor Matt Blunt can no longer be considered pro-life because of his support of an initiative petition that would establish in the Missouri Constitution the right to do cloning and embryonic stem cell research, and to use tax dollars to pay for these procedures.
On October 11, 2005, a coalition that is powered by the billion-dollar Stowers Foundation of Kansas City announced a petition drive for the "Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative." Governor Matt Blunt has given his support to the initiative, which is advertised as a measure that bans cloning while assuring that "ethical stem cell research" is guaranteed in Missouri law. Upon examination of the initiative language, however, the MRL Board found that the initiative would write anti-life provisions into the Missouri Constitution, where the Legislature could not change them, such as the following:

• By a torturous definition of "cloning," the initiative would not ban cloning per se but rather would ban the implantation of a cloned human being into a woman's womb. "Clone and kill" is an apt description of the procedure.
• The harvesting of stem cells from a human being would be allowed for up to fourteen days after creation of a human being. Such harvesting kills the human being. The period of time in which a human blastocyst or embryo was frozen would not count against the two-week harvesting period.
• The harvesting of stem cells would be allowed from human beings created by fertilization as well as those created by cloning, so long as the fertilizations was not performed "exclusively" for the purpose of "stem cell research." Any type of fertilization would qualify, natural as well as in-vitro.
• If a human embryo were not used for stem cell harvesting but for other types of stem cell research, the initiative would protect such research for any length of time that researchers would want so long as the human being was never implanted in a mother's womb. Who knows how long that could turn out to be?
• If laws of general applicability that regulate research (i.e., health department inspections of research facilities) were deemed to "create disincentives" for stem cell research, then they could not be enforced.
• If any institution qualifies for any type of state funding, then the state government could neither restrict the institution from using public funds for embryonic stem cell research nor withhold or reduce public funds otherwise available to the institution because of its destruction of embryonic human lives. Among other effects, this provision would overturn a law enacted in 2003 that restricts life science research funds from being used for cloning and embryonic stem cell research.

By supporting this initiative, the Governor has broken faith with the tens of thousands of pro-life volunteers around the state who helped elect him. He has broken his pledge not to support using public money to pay for cloning or embryonic stem cell research. He has broken his pledge not to allow any research that uses human embryos created by in-vitro fertilization (IVF). He has reversed his campaign position stated to Missouri Right to Life of opposing cloning, whether it is therapeutic cloning or reproductive cloning. He can no longer be considered a pro-life official.
The "Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative" represents a serious threat to human life in Missouri because of the provisions outlined above. It would divert the state's limited resources from already-tested, effective adult stem cell research to governmentally-funded experimentation that sacrifices human embryos for benefits that will not be realized for decades, if at all. Every legitimate pro-life organization in Missouri opposes it. So should the Governor.