by Bishop John R. Gaydos, Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri

Many thanks to all who participated in or helped in the organization of the Annual Assembly for our Missouri Catholic Conference. This year’s keynote speaker focused on the topic of the Ballot Initiative for this coming General Election Day, Tuesday, November 7, that will appear on the Ballot as Amendment 2. This Amendment 2 would alter the Constitution of the State of Missouri to eliminate any oversight by the executive, legislative or judicial branch of state government in the area of stem cell research for human application. Our guest speaker was Doctor Richard Chole, from Washington University School of Medicine. He spoke very clearly about the deliberate misinformation in the Ballot wording for Amendment 2.

Doctor Chole pointed out that the amendment language contradicts all of the language in standard medical textbooks. The textbooks define cloning as the introduction of the nucleus of one human individual’s genetic material into an enucleated human egg prepared to receive this matter. All professionals recognize that this process that is described as Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) is really human cloning. The Amendment 2 wording defies the standard textbooks and states that “cloning” only takes place when that prepared cloned embryo is implanted in the uterus of a woman.

In another example Doctor Chole pointed out that Amendment 2 language, in large print, proclaims to ban paying women for their donated eggs, but in the smaller print the amendment determines that money paid out by individual laboratories to the women would not violate this ban. In addition the Amendment’s small print decrees that money paid by researchers to the collecting agencies is simple reimbursement of reasonable expenses and does not violate the ban on paying for human eggs.

A current ad by the proponents of this Amendment 2 shows a small black dot and proclaims that this little speck of tissue is not worth all of the fuss. After listening to Dr. Chole this advertisement reminded me of one of Dr. Seuss’s classic stories for children, “Horton Hears a Who.” In the story Horton is an elephant who one day, while splashing in a pool of water hears someone cry for help. The only source of this cry seems to him to be a little speck of dust floating in the air. With his trunk he gently grabs the speck of dust and settles it on a clover blossom. He does this because, as Horton says in the story, “a person’s a person, no matter how small.” Of course for most of the story, Horton is the only one who can hear anything coming off of the speck of dust and as the story unfolds it turns out to be a whole village of folks with houses and a bustling community. All of the other animals in the jungle begin by mocking but end up threatening persecution of Horton for his dedication to this speck of dust. They even decide to get the whole thing over and boil the clover blossom with its speck of dust in a vat of hot oil. In the meantime the whole village on the “dust speck” is trying to raise enough noise so that others besides Horton could hear them. It’s all to no avail until they find out they were lacking the participation of one eccentric little boy. Of course when they get him to join in, his is the extra voice that makes the difference and saves the day for the folks on the speck of dust.

You will pardon me if I am feeling very much like Horton the elephant right now. But this story is a very powerful reminder to me in the midst of this debate that, indeed, a person is a person no matter how small. And we are reminded that the assistance of everyone will be needed if we are to succeed in convincing our neighbors in Missouri to vote NO on Amendment 2 this November 7.