No Taxpayer Funding for Human Cloning

Contact Your State Lawmakers Now!!!

On November 7, 2006 the Amendment 2 human cloning proposal passed by less than 50,000 votes out of over 2 million votes cast. Supporters of Amendment 2 spent over $30.00 for each vote cast in favor of the amendment. Some Amendment 2 backers professed to have no interest in obtaining taxpayer dollars. Voters were repeatedly assured there would be no tax increase.

Now it is time to hold Amendment 2 backers to their word. With Amendment 2 passing by such a narrow margin, no one can reasonably argue that there is any mandate to spend taxpayer funds on such controversial and unethical experiments.

But beware – there are ways cloning backers may try to obtain taxpayer funds anyway. When the legislature convenes on January 3, 2007, don’t expect any bill to be filed that forthrightly calls for the funding of human cloning. The strategy will involve deception, just like we experienced in the recent election when the ballot title claimed Amendment 2 banned human cloning when in fact the proposal authorized human cloning.

The next deception will be to try to fund human cloning or embryonic experiments under the guise of some broadly title proposal like “life science research,” “biotechnology investments,” or higher education funding through selling assets of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA). But passage of Amendment 2 means that if the state funds any human life sciences research, it must also fund human cloning and other experiments that destroy human life at the earliest stage of development. You can make sure this does not happen.

ACTION REQUESTED:

Contact your State Senator and State Representative today – before they arrive in Jefferson City on January 3rd and get buttonholed by lobbyists for big biotech. A list of legislators for the coming 2007 legislative session is enclosed.

TELL YOUR LEGISLATORS THE FOLLOWING:

Do NOT spend any taxpayer money on human life sciences research. Furthermore, assets of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) should NOT be sold to pay for life sciences research facilities on state college campuses. Since the legislature can no longer prohibit taxpayer dollars from being spent on unethical life sciences research activities like human cloning and embryonic stem cell research that destroys human life, the legislature should NOT expend any public funds for human life sciences research activity.

Legislator Contact Information (PDF)