Stem cell petition ignores reality of law


Missouri citizens won an important battle last November to preserve to the right of scientists, caregivers and patients to access any stem cell research and cures allowed under federal law and available to other Americans, as long as those activities are conducted ethically and safely and do not involve any attempt to clone a human being. Our constitution now makes it a crime that is punishable by 15 years in prison to even attempt to clone a human being.
Stem cell opponents are now working to repeal the right of our citizens to access federally approved medical research, treatments, and cures and will be soliciting signatures on a petition to place an amendment on the ballot. This issue was decided last year at much expense for both sides of the issue and significant finger-pointing and acidic comments regarding varying positions. We don't need to visit this issue again when the current state amendment essentially allows research to be conducted in Missouri that is allowed by federal law. I urge you to read the petition carefully if you are asked to sign. While a valid petition with enough signatures merely places the issue on the ballot, it doesn't make sense to revisit an issue that was decided last year. I realize most of us are inclined to sign a petition thrust our way, but please read the language of the petition. If you don't agree with the language, don't sign the petition.



I have a strong interest in this issue. First, I very much want to see the life-science industry in our state. Missouri has made steady strides to build its life-sciences, bio-based industry. Passage of the Stem Cell Amendment protected those gains by ensuring that Missouri can aggressively compete with other states to attract and to keep its businesses and researchers. Missouri must build on this momentum if our state is to compete in the world economy.

I have a second, more personal interest in protecting access to stem cell research and cures in Missouri. My wife has diabetes, and I have ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. The overwhelming majority of medical experts and patient advocacy groups believe that embryonic stem cell research has the potential to lead to cures for diabetes, ALS, cancer and spinal cord injuries, as well as many a multitude of other devastating diseases that currently are incurable. I don't know whether stem cell research will eventually lead to a cure or treatment of diabetes or ALS, but I believe there is a need to move forward with the research. I also don't think a cure or treatment for diabetes or ALS will be found in time to benefit my wife or me, but I would hope that the research would benefit my children and grandchildren as well as the thousands of individuals in Missouri that will be diagnosed with these and other diseases in the future.

If the stem cell opponents get their way, one of the most promising forms of early stem cell research, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), will be outlawed in our state. A scientist utilizing this breakthrough research would be a felon. A doctor administering a therapy derived from or utilizing SCNT would be a felon, and the patient receiving the therapy would be a felon. Obviously, such an outcome would be ludicrous.

Someday we will look back and be awed at the vision that our state had to reach into the future and harness the staggering promise of this medical science to protect the physical health of its citizens and the fiscal health of its economy. I urge Missourians to reject the opponents' position by refusing to sign their petitions to place a measure on the 2008 ballot.

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