Another important fact that MAHC points out: Embryonic stem cell research has yet to provide any medical treatments or potential cures. You would think, from all the hype surrounding the issue, that stem cells from human embryos were already showing great promise to cure numerous diseases. But that’s not the case, which may explain why “none of the major biotech companies -- none of them -- are putting their money behind therapeutic cloning,” according to Leon Kass, former chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics.
Under Amendment 2, however, Missouri taxpayers will be putting their money behind it. Why? As MAHC states, “The proponents of the amendment are after your tax dollars to fund questionable research because private money has been directed to more promising research avenues.” And what type of research is, in fact, more promising? Adult stem cells. As the doctors and scientists behind MAHC note, “Adult stem cells are successfully being used in clinical trials and the research and treatment of numerous disorders.”
Last year, The Heritage Foundation held a panel featuring leaders in the bio-tech world who went into great detail about the many advances in adult stem cell research. A leading expert, scientist and bio-technology patent attorney at the law firm of Williams Mullen, Dr. Kelly Hollowell, says, “The deception is so great and the media so biased that the average American has no clue that over 65 diseases and conditions are now being successfully treated with adult stem-cell therapies. Scientists have not even been able to control the tumor growth intimately associated with embryonic stem cell research, which is one of many reasons why there are no clinical applications or current use of the embryonic stem cells. Science does not support the effective application of embryonic stem cells in human therapies.”
In other words, folks, there is no evidence -- nada, zippo, nothing -- that embryonic stem cells offer hope. Even abortion advocates who believe the human embryo isn’t really human (rhetorical question: Then what is it? A dog maybe? A cat?) can look at the evidence and see, as Heritage Foundation Ed Feulner pointed out in one of his weekly columns, that we’re wasting our time discussing embryonic research.
Those supposed-advocates of women’s rights also must take note that Amendment 2 would lead to the exploitation of disadvantaged women who would be enticed -- for financial reasons, obviously -- to undergo risky medical procedures in order to provide their eggs for stem cell research. Yet, where is the feminist outrage on Amendment 2?
And let’s not forget the most salient aspect of this issue: It’s impossible to conduct human embryonic stem cell research without destroying human life. To do so in a quixotic pursuit for cures that research has shown to be non-existent is perverse in the extreme.
Through dark deception, the wonderful state that once served as the gateway to a new world may very well become America’s gateway to insidious science.