HB 365 to Fund Human Cloning

On Monday, April 2, 2007, the Missouri House of Representatives took up for perfection HCS HB 365, 804 & 805. Rep. Belinda Harris had a pro-life amendment to the bill distributed ahead of time, and was poised to offer the amendment, when the Majority Floor Leader moved the previous question on the adoption of the HCS, and the PQ was approved. Thus, Rep. Harris was denied the opportunity to offer, debate and have a vote on her pro-life amendment to the HCS.

Among other provisions in the HCS, sections 348.273 to 348.274 says the Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC) would be authorized to issue up to ten million dollars in new, permanent tax credits per fiscal year, to benefit collaborative research projects, technology commercialization infrastructure projects or qualifying companies approved by MTC.

Rep. Harris’ pro-life amendment is simple. It will place the authority to issue these new tax credits into the hands of the Department of Economic Development (DED), instead of MTC. The pro-life community has grave concerns that because of MTC’s documented support of human cloning (SCNT) and embryonic stem cell research, these tax credits could go to projects and companies that engage in such types of unethical research. Because MTC is not a state agency, but is a private corporation, lawmakers will never have the oversight of and if necessary, restraint of, MTC that is available with a state agency like DED.

MTC is a private not for profit corporation permitted by statute to be chartered by the Secretary of State. It has a 15 member board of directors, chaired by Donn Rubin.

Donn Rubin wears many hats, in addition to chairing MTC. Rubin is the chairman and a chief spokesman of the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, which spent over $30 million to enact Amendment 2, which placed in the Missouri Constitution a right to engage in human cloning and research involving the destructing of human embryos. Just last week, Rubin was again in the news, as reported in the March 28, 2007 Columbia Daily Tribune, attacking Rep. Dr. Wayne Cooper, chairman of the House Health Policy Committee, accusing him of “shameful politics” and “lay[ing] in wait to thwart the will of Missouri voters.”

This was not the first time Rubin engaged in malicious attacks on pro-life lawmakers and their attempts to ban human cloning in Missouri. As reported in the Nov. 6, 2006 Weekly Standard, during a KMOX radio debate on Amendment 2 just before the election, Rubin described legislative efforts to ban human cloning in this way:

According to Rubin, the “reprehensible” and “drastic” bills being mulled in Jefferson City would penalize “doctors and patients” and “throw them in jail with drug dealers and arsonists.” Indeed, he said, by criminalizing medical research, the anti-SCNT legislation would mandate that a cured patient’s first steps “out of a wheelchair” would be “into a jail cell.”

Rubin’s involvement with human cloning research and his attacks on pro-life lawmakers doesn’t end with just his verbal assaults – they also include his actions.

According to the Missouri Ethics Commission, Rubin is the deputy treasurer of the political action committee Supporters of Health Research and Treatments (SHRT), which pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into state legislative races during the 2006 election cycle. SHRT member and Stowers Institute attorney David Welte, in a March 10, 2006 St. Louis Review story, said the purpose of SHRT is to “educate and support candidates and political organizations about stem-cell research, therapies and cures in Missouri,” with a focus specifically on embryonic stem-cell research, because of efforts within the legislature to criminalize it. Welte claimed that while SHRT is not formally affiliated with the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, the two groups have “common policy goals.”

Because of Rep. Jim Lembke’s courageous efforts to ban human cloning, the SHRT targeted him for defeat in the last election, spending an astonishing $50,325.00 to try to defeat him.

The public record documents that MTC board members other than Rubin supported Amendment 2, had previously opposed attempts by state lawmakers to ban all human cloning, or both. These members include Robert Calcaterra, Daniel P. Mehan, Elson Floyd, Frank Stokes and Greg Wendt. Other MTC members may also fall in this category.

MTC executive director, Rob Monsees, is also a supporter of Amendment 2, as reported in the Sept. 16, 2006 Columbia Daily Tribune. Monsees “said the stem cell research ballot issue will attract attention to Missouri because it will make the difference in whether the institutions like the university system, the Stowers Institute in Kansas City and Washington University in St. Louis will be able to recruit top talent in the fields of biomedical research.”

MTC is closely aligned with the Research Alliance of Missouri (RAM), an unincorporated association (whose legal existence is as a fictitious name on file with the Secretary of State). RAM has as one of its members the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, whose founders, James and Virginia Stowers, were the primary financiers of Amendment 2. MTC’s 2006 Annual Report says RAM is staffed by MTC’s executive director. This apparently means RAM, which includes the Stowers Institute, will help direct the use of $10 million in state tax credits.

The evidence is clear that MTC is closely aligned with the human cloning and embryonic stem cell research industry, and lawmakers should guarantee that MTC does not control $10 million in taxpayers’ monies in the form of state tax credits.