Amendment 2 Narrowly Passes
It was close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, as they say. Amendment 2 passed with about 51% of the vote.
It's hard to fight against $30 million. But the no campaign proved that people do not like cloning for any purpose, which is why the proponents deceived voters into thinking they were not legalizing it with a yes vote. And, they worry about egg harvesting and the Brave New World that biotechnologists plan for us.
This fight over cloning is going to be long and hard. It does not end in Missouri. I believe that the hubris of the forces of unfettered research will eventually bring down their Brave New World agenda around their ears. But that might take awhile. People yearn to have serious illnesses ameliorated. The siren song of ESCR and research cloning hits a deep cord.
The question becomes, how far are people willing to permit biotechnologists to go in treating human life like a crop if they believe it will lead to CURES! CURES! CURES!I don't know the answer. And if ESCR disappoints, as I expect it will, how will they react when these same scientists urge that they be permitted to engage in fetal farming and/or the harvesting patients in PVS? These agendas are already being promoted in some quarters. Again, I don't know.
Still, the struggle is worth making, the intrinsic value of all human life is worth fighting for. The close election over Amendment 2, while disheartening, is not any reason to assume the game is over. In fact, it has only just begun.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 11:40 PM
10 Comments
10 Comments:
Well science is now safe from hostile legistlation like proposed SB160. If the conservatives had not attacked scientific researchers in the first place there would have been no need to pass an amendment protecting researchers and patients.
Now we have the legal protection to proceed with our lives as we see best, free from those who feel they are so much more intelligent and moral that they can impose there will upon us who believe differently.
Now you may not support ESCR but at least you have a choice. A choice to not recieve therapy if you have objection. And I still have a choice to recieve treatment and allow research to continue for things that I feel are real pro life values.
It is a great day for freedom. Mr Smith can remain a pessimist about our hope for curing disease, but I remain optomistic. Modern science has done marvels to save people from cancer, polio, small pox and many other diseases that used to kill populations at an earlier age. Science is now back in the hands of scientist, where it should be.
Your reference to this being a game is a fitting way to leave this issue. For those with disease that will likely recieve benifits and cures from upcoming therapies this is no game, this is our lives and we are empowered to do as we choose. Freedom has prevailed.
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Well, no one had ever threatened to punish patients who received cures, just another Amendment 2 deception. The Amendment legalized human cloning, under the guise of making it illegal, a further deception.
I see you think only scientists can state what is moral in science. History teaches us the danger of that approach. All endeavors need checks and balances, which is precisely what the anything goes crowd does not want.
The term "game" is not meant literally, as you well know. It is a coloquialism for an endeavor, in this case and urgent and important endeavor, to protect the intrinsic value of human life and prevent any of us, no matter how nascent or disabled, from being transformed into a mere natural resource.
And I do believe that the effective treatments will come from ethical sources of stem cell research. I think the cloning agenda will be the next dot com bust, with the money lost not those of entrepreneurs, but of the taxpayers.
We will see.
Thank you for keeping this in perspective.
-JacqueFromTexas
Thank YOU JacqueFromTexas, for tuning into Secondhand Smoke.
I wouldn't say that the closeness of the vote is irrelevant. Consider this: just a few months ago, A2 was ready to pass by a 2:1 margin. It looked like a slam dunk win.
Then the anti-cloning forces mobilized, with an effective campaign that, despite what Donn Rubin says, simply told voters and others what is in the amendment, pointing out the self-serving redefinition of "clone" and how the authors of the amendment sought to mislead people.
Support gradually dropped. It was something like 60-29, and then 53-39, and then 49-43 as of last week. The vote proved even closer than that. Again, oppoenents were outspent by supporters approximately 10:1, and the final count was STILL 51-49.
What we need to do now is educate the rest of the country about this. Warn others about this (I plan a series of op-eds) and that it could be coming to a state near them. Don't wait for the Donn Rubins and the William Neaves of this world to come with their snake oil.
You mention in another thread that pro-cloners in the Senate will filibuster. That's why we can't let the issue go away. Educate the people who don't understand that somatic cell nuclear transfer is scientifically defined to be cloning. When people are polled about SCNT, and they don't understand what it is, and when they're promised "CURES CURES CURES," they're more likely to vote yes. When they're apprised of the fact that SCNT is cloning, they overwhelmingly oppose it, even if they're well aware that the embryos will be destroyed shortly thereafter. The pro-cloning bills in the Senate use the exact same deceptive "redefinitions" that A2 does. People need to know. Don't let this issue fade into the background again.
No, the close vote isn't a reason to give up; it's a reason to be energized, if anything. Why, all Missouri needs to do is come up with an amendment that bans SCNT. If that weren't the case, we'd still have Prohibition in this country...
Question for darkswan: would this "choice" concept of yours also apply to killing, let's say, the homeless for medical research? That those who oppose can simply opt out without preventing others from doing so? It's the same principle.
Right on, bmmg39!
As a member and speaker for Missourians Against Human Cloning (MAHC)I am disheartened by the election loss but also very inspired by what transpired here in Missouri. The proponents had $30 million and very deceptive language on their side. MAHC utilized a grass roots effort of presentations, literature and friend to friend conversations to educate voters about what was really at stake in this amendment.
My advice to other states who may encounter such an attempt to amend their constitution: get out early and begin to lay the groundwork for the terminology of the debate. We had to spend far too much time arguing that human life begins at conception (or inception), that embryonic stem cells come from embryos (they aren't magically created in a dish), that SCNT is creates a cloned organism (not a bunch of unfertilized cells in a dish)and that we were talking about speculative research not cures. Language means everything in this debate. You won't hear the proponents use the term embryo, human or cloning.
The good news is that once you can get past the euphemisms and emotional pleading and have a rational discussion most people realize they are opposed to this type of research. The bad news is this kind of education and discussion takes time and can't be placed on a bumper sticker, yard sign or covered in a 30 second commercial and in general the media only repeat phrases that are quoted to them and do little to research what is really being discussed.
Thanks for your good work, protectlife. When the truth is known, it impacts thinking. Once people learned the truth about A. 2, it fell like a stone. One more week and we just might have beat it.
But onward. The struggle has only just begun.
Protect life, I've sent an e-mail to nocloning.org. Check it out. Look for my user name. This is the time to keep fighting; the pro-cloners are hoping we go home with our tails 'twixt our legs. That's not going to happen.
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