Campaign starts for Missouri stem cell initiative

Voters in the US state of Missouri will decide in the November ballot whether embryonic stem cell (ES cell) research should be allowed to take place in the state. The Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative - or Amendment 2 - would amend the state's constitution to allow ES cell research to take place and therapies derived from the research to be used on patients, while also banning human reproductive cloning.

In May, a group called the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures (MCLC), announced that it had submitted far more than enough petition signatures needed to place Amendment 2 on the November state ballot. MCLC is a group that last November launched a state-wide advertising campaign asking voters to sign petitions to enable it to bring the measure forward for ballot. The group needed 145,000 signatures on its petitions to do so, but submitted almost double that. '288,991 Missouri citizens signed petitions to allow a public vote on this important measure, which is nearly twice as many signatures as required', said Donn Rubin, Chair of the MCLC. The petitions were a response to efforts in the state legislature designed to restrict ES cell research in the state.

The ballot initiative appears to be causing divisions both within and between the political parties. When the petition was submitted, Republican state Senator Jim Talent issued a press statement saying that he will oppose the November ballot measure. 'I personally cannot support the initiative', he said, adding 'I've always been opposed to human cloning and this measure would make cloning human life at the earliest stage a constitutional right'. However, in July, Matt Blunt, the Republican Governor of Missouri, said that he will continue to support the proposal but would not play a role in campaigning for the referendum.

Last week, hundreds of patients and supporters of MCLC attended a large public rally to launch their campaign to get votes in favour of Amendment 2 in November. If passed, the amendment will ensure that any Missourian will continue to have access to any stem cell therapies and cures that are allowed under federal law. Politicians in the state had repeatedly tried to enact a state ban on research in this area, or the use by state citizens of any treatments to come from ES cell research. The amendment would not require the state to spend public funds on ES cell research.

Opponents of Amendment 2 also held a joint rally - almost 300 people turned up to hear keynote speaker Allan Keyes tell the Christians Against Human Cloning rally that the type of research being advocated by MCLC is 'just as brutal as Nazi experiments on prisoners during World War II' and would allow 'new legions of humans to be enslaved and brutalised'. However, Dr Bill Neaves, chief executive officer of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, which has part-funded MLRC's campaign, said that 'the terrible thing about the coalition is that they are willing to tell the most outrageous lies in the hopes that when November rolls round, for each of the lies they tell there is one small part of the population that remembers and will be motivated to cast a negative vote'.