The Ballot Summary of the cloners' Amendment 2 that you will read in the voting booth on November 7
completely misrepresents the full 2000-word text of the amendment.
To correct this injustice, Missouri Roundtable For Life is publishing this weekly series
on the principal deceptions of Amendment 2.
Amendment 2 pretends to ban killing human embryos to harvest stem cells after the fourteenth day of their life. Section 2(3) of the amendment states that "No stem cells may be taken from a human blastocyst more than fourteen days after cell division begins."
But wait...the definition section of the amendment, Section 6, reverses the plain English meaning of this apparent ban and actually creates a state constitutional right to abort children at any stage of development to harvest stem cells. We have seen this pattern of reversals again and again throughout the amendment.
Section 6(1)defines "blastocyst," which is an early embryo, as an entity that "has not been implanted in a uterus." In other words, once a human embryo has been implanted in a uterus—and there is no restriction on implanting an embryo from in vitro fertilization—he or she is no longer a blastocyst and the prohibition against harvesting his or her stem cells laid out in Section 2(3) no longer applies.
Can stem cells be harvested from an unborn child once he or she is implanted in the uterus? YES. Section 2 of initiative states that "any stem cell research... may be conducted in Missouri… subject to… only the following additional limitations and requirements," that is those limitations and requirements found in Sections 2(1)-2(7). Since these sections do not prohibit harvesting of stem cells from unborn children in the womb, the initiative clearly grants the right to do so.
Under this amendment, will researchers have the state constitutional right to obtain human embryos from in vitro fertilization, implant them in a uterus, allow the babies to develop in the womb until they produce a desired type of stem cells, and then abort them to harvest their stem cells? YES. This is not just a theoretical possibility. Embryonic stem cells often form tumors when taken out of the context of the whole embryo. Researchers may be tempted to try to circumvent this difficulty by allowing embryos to develop further in a womb so they can abort them to harvest later stage stem cells.
Amendment 2 will thus abolish portions of Section 188.036 of the Missouri Revised Statues, Regulation of Abortions, which prohibits abortion with intention of using the unborn child’s organs or tissues for "medical transplantation." In place of these present regulations, the initiative will create a constitutional right to harvest stem cells from unborn children in the womb. This right, as an amendment to the constitution, will not be able to be limited by the legislature in any way whatsoever.