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A group that wants Missouri voters to legalize research involving cloned human embryos, says that it is opposed to cloning.
Wrong again, says Rev. Mr. Larry Weber, executive director and general counsel of the Missouri Catholic Conference, a statewide Church agency that strongly opposes all human cloning and embryonic stem-cell research on the basis of Catholic teaching and natural law.
Rev. Mr. Weber addressed about 80 Missouri business men and women as part of a Nov. 10 legislative seminar held in Kansas City by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce.
The purpose of the debate, one of several programs at the seminar, was to educate participants about both sides' positions on an issue believed by many to have heavy bearing over the state's economy.
Attempting to advance the viewpoint of a group that calls itself the "Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures" was the group's outreach coordinator, Sandra Aust. MCLC is pushing for a constitutional amendment in Missouri to guarantee the legality of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), a form of cloning that results in the creation of a living human embryo. The group is circulating a statewide initiative petition, hoping to put the proposed amendment before voters next year.
"Although the wording of their proposition says they want to ban human cloning, I point out that what they, in fact, plan to do under the proposition is, in fact, cloning," said Rev. Mr. Weber. "It biologically results in the creation and destruction of a human being."
Because he was speaking to a nonsectarian audience, the arguments he presented in the debate were based on science, morals and ethics but not religion.
"The artfully named Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative," he told the audience, "presents a number of issues to Missouri voters - some of which, of course, are government policy in nature, since this proposal amends our state Constitution ... but others of which are moral or ethical in nature - like the protection of basic human rights such as life and liberty that have traditionally been protected by our government.
"The initiative," he said, "raises issues involving the beginning of human life - the protection of human life established in laboratories rather than in the human body - and the ability of government to ensure that taxpayer funds are spent in a manner that protects basic human rights."
Distinctly human
Rev. Mr. Weber pointed out that at the moment of conception, a human zygote is genetically distinct from his or her parents, contains the same genetic blueprint that he or she would possess at age 65, and has begun the lifelong process of human development.
"No one can deny that we were all single-cell beings at one time," he said. "Human clones can come into being both naturally and in the laboratory," he stated. "Human embryologists know that human clones naturally occur when identical twins come into being. ... Scientists and society accept human twins, even though they are naturally occurring clones and genetically identical, as separate individuals and human from the very beginning of their development.
"No one would accept the notion that it is permissible to use the body parts - or even kill - the one identical twin (naturally occurring clone) in order to benefit the other," he continued. "However, some in the research community would allow destruction of human clones in the name of scientific research."
He noted that SCNT, a process the initiative's supporters want to keep legal, is cloning and creates a new and independent human life.
"This process simply mimics what happens naturally in sexual reproduction, and results in creation of a one-celled human embryo, a zygote," he said. That statement echoes the conclusions of scientists throughout the world, several of which Rev. Mr. Weber cited in his presentation.
Cloning is cloning
The initiative's supporters attempt to redefine "human cloning" as making a woman pregnant by implanting in the uterus "anything other than the product of fertilization of an egg of a human female by a sperm of a human male for the purpose of initiating a pregnancy that could result in the ... birth of a human being."
Rev. Mr. Weber pointed out that such flawed reasoning goes against common and well-established scientific understanding that human life begins at conception, well before implantation in the uterus, and that cloning results in conception.
Furthermore, he stated, the initiative would allow stem cell research to proceed on the tissue of human embryos whether derived from in vitro fertilization or from cloning techniques such as SCNT.
He noted that the initiative would override current state funding guidelines that prohibit the use of taxpayer money for the use of tissue from destroyed human embryos or fetuses, involving abortion or destruction of early life.
"Since the initiative [would amend] the Missouri Constitution, it will be impossible for the State Legislature to ever restrict state funds from being used for such unethical purposes," he said. "We would be writing into the very framework of our state government, not constitutional protections for life and liberty, but the constitutional ability for some scientists and researchers to destroy nascent human life and to receive state funding for that purpose."
A waste of money
He further noted that embryonic stem cell research has yet to produce any significant results. Meanwhile, many life-saving therapies have been developed using stem cells derived from non-embryonic sources, such as bone marrow, blood, fat tissue, umbilical-cord blood, and placentas. He cited news reports of people recovering from spinal cord injuries and paralysis through non-embryonic stem cell therapies, and an Internet website (www.stemcellresearch.org) that documents 65 other diseases or conditions that benefit from non-embryonic stem cell research.
"It is sad that proponents of this initiative are diverting public attention and available resources away from successful therapies using adult stem cells, thus allowing millions of people to continue to suffer," said Rev. Mr. Weber, "while these same proponents insist that public tax dollars and public attention be focused on embryonic stem cell research involving the creation and destruction of human lives through SCNT."
The Michigan model
To counter the argument that Missouri must allow embryonic stem-cell research in order to rejuvenate its economy, Rev. Mr. Weber cited impressive economic statistics from Michigan, which in 1998 banned all forms of human cloning. With that ban in place, employment growth in Michigan's technology and life-sciences industries have continued to outpace the rest of the state's economy dramatically.
"Missouri, like Michigan, can prosper in the life sciences with a ban on human cloning," Rev. Mr. Weber stated.
He asserted that Missouri can become a center of life-saving research using non-embryonic stem cell research and that in doing so can improve its economy without compromising itself ethically.
"As we seek what is possible, we must always ask what is right, and we must not forget that even the most noble ends do not justify any means," said Rev. Mr. Weber. "The Tuskegee syphilis study, Nazi Germany's hypothermia experiments, and our own government's radiation experiments during the Cold War will always be remembered in the medical history, but not in a positive light.
"Any 'progress' these unethical experiments may have brought on a technical level is far overshadowed by their ignorance of the humanity of their subjects," he said.
Rev. Mr. Weber said the audience seemed thoughtful and receptive to his message.
"These are smart people," he said. "They didn't become captains of industry by being dummies."
Original article published in the Catholic Missourian November 18, 2005. Reprinted with permission. |
