Stem Cell Ballot Title “Sufficient” Says Cole County Judge

January 20, 2006, JEFFERSON CITY, MO – On Thursday January 19, 2006 Cole County Circuit Judge Bryan Kinder ruled that the ballot title for a stem cell research initiative claiming to ban human cloning was sufficient and fair.

Supporters of the proposed constitutional amendment said they would immediately begin to collect the required 150,000 voter signatures to place the proposal on the November 7, 2006 election ballot.

The ruling came after a day long trial in which scientists offered opposing testimony on when human life begins and whether the initiative allowed human cloning.

Judge Kinder said the ballot title was not the best title but it was sufficient in outlining the full text of the proposed constitutional amendment.

Missouri law requires the Missouri Secretary of State to develop a ballot title not exceeding one hundred words that summarizes the full text of the proposed constitutional amendment.

According to Mike Hoey, the Assistant Director of the Missouri Catholic Conference, it is the ballot title not the full text of the proposed amendment that voters will see when they enter the voting booth.

“The ballot title states that the proposal will ban human cloning,” Hoey said. “This is false. The proposal actually redefines human cloning to refer to human cloning only as effected if the cloned embryo is implanted in a woman’s uterus.”

Judge Kinder said it would be up to opponents to prove to voters that the ballot title is deceptive. Hoey said the court ruling was very narrow.

“The Judge said the ballot title sufficiently summarized the full text of the proposal. He did not rule on whether the full text of the proposal allowed human cloning. The judge declined to enter into a debate about what constituted human cloning and simply agreed that the ballot title accurately represented what is said and defined in the full text of the proposed constitutional amendment,” Hoey said.

“Cloning proponents are taking a page from a old play-book where you change the terms of the debate to suit your purposes regardless of the actual facts,” Hoey said.

The proposal prohibits so-called reproductive cloning, according to Hoey. “But it allows a cloning procedure known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and permits science to use the resulting embryo for biomedical research. This type of research is commonly referred to as ‘therapeutic’ cloning.”

Using somatic cell nuclear transfer the nucleus of an egg donated by a woman is removed and replaced with the nucleus of an adult stem cell. The resulting zygote has the full human DNA complement of 46 chromosomes. The Catholic Church teaches that human life is present when a zygote with the full genetic makeup is created.

Missourians Against Human Cloning brought the suit claiming that the ballot title was deceptive. The Catholic bishops of Missouri intervened in support of the plaintiffs.

In testifying before Judge Kinder, Maureen Condic, an associate professor of Neurobiology at the University of Utah, said that the definition of human cloning offered in the proposal was not scientifically accurate. She said the proposal would only ban cloning that produced a baby but not human cloning conducted for medical research.

The Catholic Church considers all forms of human cloning morally unacceptable but especially opposes so-called therapeutic cloning in which a human life is created only to be destroyed later to extract stem cells.

“You cannot use morally evil means to achieve even some positive end like finding cures for diseases, Hoey said. “The danger here is we begin to treat human life as a commodity that can be manipulated for research goals. We need to respect human life at all stages of development, even at the very earliest stages of development, Hoey said.

No decision has been made concerning whether to appeal Judge Kinder’s ruling. Regardless of the legal outcome, Hoey said the Conference has begun a campaign to educate voters that the proposed constitutional amendment would authorize publicly subsidized human cloning experiments.