Director of Missouri Coalition for Life-Saving Cures: Amendment 2 Makes No Claim to Ban Human Cloning

Kansas City Star, Oct. 18, 2006 by Alan Scher Zagier

Opponents of embryonic stem cell research say the well-funded campaign is an attempt to buy an amendment to the state constitution while codifying human cloning.

"When people understand the deceptive language hidden in this five-page amendment, they're getting upset and getting angry," Jaci Winship, executive director of Missourians Against Human Cloning, said in a telephone interview.

Winship cited ballot language that suggests the measure bans human cloning but also allows for somatic cell nuclear transfer, a procedure, also known as therapeutic cloning, in which the nucleus of an unfertilized human egg is replaced with the nucleus from a skin or nerve cell. The altered egg then is stimulated to grow in a lab dish, and researchers remove the resulting stem cells, sacrificing the donor embryo in the process.

Donn Rubin, executive director of the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, said the measure "does not make any claim to ban all cloning."