A group calling itself "Cures Without Cloning" is trying to change the law in Missouri, supposedly strengthening it to prevent creation of cloned embryos, but what they are actually trying to do is make genetic engineering and same-sex conception legal in Missouri again. Their proposed new law would remove the language that prohibits implanting a human embryo that was not created by joining the sperm of a human male to the egg of a human female, even though there is no reason to remove that language in order to prohibit the creation of cloned embryos. And since all a scientist would have to do to get around the new law is make one change to the genome so it is no longer "virtually identical" to an existing person, it would not even prevent scientists from creating and destroying human embryos to their hearts content. Surely they are aware of these issues, so the only conclusion one can make is that they are intentionally trying to revoke the nations first anti-genetic engineering natural conception law and open the door to designer babies and same-sex conception, cynically trying to use people's opposition to cloning to re-legalize genetic engineering.
So make no mistake, Missourians, this is a con job. If you want to make it illegal to create embryos for destruction in stem cell research, then change the law so it prohibits creation, rather than only implantation, of human embryos that are "anything other than the product of fertilization of an egg of a human female by a sperm of a human male".
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8 comments:
I just submitted this letter on the Cures Without Cloning question form:
"Hello, I'm concerned that the proposed new language would allow ESCR, including the creation and destruction of human embryos, as long as a change has been engineered into the genome so that it is no longer "virtually identical" to another person. It seems to me that using genetically engineered embryonic stem cells for cures would be even more dangerous than using exact clones, and this would not stop that, it would in fact force doctors to make some risky change to get around the new law's language.
Why not leave the old language that prohibited implanting embryos that are not the product of a man's sperm and a woman's egg, but extend the prohibition to the creation of embryos rather than only implantation?
To achieve your stated goals, the proposed language needs to be changed. Your proposed language will not stop ESCR or save embryonic human lives, it will only make it even more dangerous.
Sincerely, John Howard, Arlington Massachusetts"
Let's see if they respond to me. Ha! Now it's time to write a letter to the Missouri papers.
The ballot language is not yet set in stone. Scientific and legal experts are still reviewing the language so I have forwarded these concerns on to those in charge and they will be taking a look at it.
That's great news! Thank you so much for responding and checking out eggandsperm blog. Let's cross our fingers that my point gets across.
You will never stop stem cell research Mr. Howard. This branch of medicine is FAR to advantageous for some small group of over verbally religious zealots to ban any further. Look for stem cell research, and thus Same Sex Procreation, to be a REALITY within the next 5 to 8 years.
Anonymous, it should be noted that I have no objection to stem cell research, even "embryonic" stem cell research that involves creating cloned embryos, though I don't feel it is the right way to spend our resources and creating cloned embryos exploits women for their eggs and puts them at needless risk of infertility and death. But it's not the only way that people are exploited and put at risk, or the only way our resources are misdirected. My goal is to stop conception of children by any means other than natural egg and sperm conception, to ensure that we are all created equal, as a child of a man and woman.
Oh? And exactly how does banning SSP gaurantee equality Mr. Howard? Just curious.
If we allow people to be created by labs, using modified or improved genes, then we aren't all created equally, as the genetic offspring of our mother and father. There'd be a "genes race", where people felt obligated to use screened and improved gametes in order to give their child a genetic advantage. There'd be some people that felt obligated to hire a lab to use risky same-sex conception, while others were not pressured into doing that and could continue to create children the old-fashioned (and safe and cheap) way. It would coarsen the culture and make people less accepting of each other's disabilities or respectful of their abilities, because we'd see it all as something that a lab created and could have created even better, rather than as a person, the natural result of two people's conceiving together. When we are all created the same way, we respect each other more.
Yah right!! LOL! Unless of course you're a homo right Mr. Howard? LMAO! MH.
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