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After narrowly losing a fight against a so-called “cloning ban” on the state-wide ballot last year, anti-cloning forces in Missouri have begun the effort to close the glaring loopholes and truly prohibit all forms of human cloning. The proponents of the new constitutional amendment to completely ban human cloning have to gather 139,181 - 151,619 signatures to get the measure on the 2008 ballot.
Their efforts hit a snag yesterday when the Secretary of State of Missouri (Robin Carnahan) released the official ballot summary which reads like an opposition talking point. Understandably anti-cloning groups charge the language is unfair and deceptive. To read the text of the ballot summary click here or continue reading.
Excerpt from Columbia Tribune blog post:
Curt Mercadante, a spokesman for Cures Without Cloning, said the language “in no way accurately reflects what we’re attempting to do.”
“Quite honestly, it sounds like a talking point out of an opposition group’s playbook,” Mercadante said. “What the amendment is attempting to do is very simple: attempting to prohibit all human cloning in the state of Missouri.”
Despite exaggerated claims of the potential of embryonic stem cell research, one disabled Missourian is speaking out against unethical research and supporting the efforts of Cures Without Cloning to truly ban human cloning in Missouri.
Excerpt:
"No matter what potential good may come of it, you know, you can't create and destroy human life for research," said Chelsea Zimmerman from Cures Without Cloning. "It's just wrong."
A car accident nearly eight years ago left Zimmerman in a wheelchair, but this did not change her view of embryonic stem cell research.
"Obviously, I would love to walk again, I would love to see other people out of their suffering," Zimmerman said. "We aren't trying to limit research, and we are in favor of cures, and there are cures and treatments happening with adult stem cells and adult stem cell research."
For more information visit Cures Without Cloning or the AdvanceUSA Missouri/Human Cloning page.
UPDATES:
Text of deceptive ballot summary below:
Even
though Israel has no restrictions on embryonic stem cell research the Israeli
company has decided to invest only in adult stem cells for practical reasons
in its mission to provide treatment for neurological disorders such as Lou
Gehrig's disease and Parkinson's.
Reuters
Excerpt:
Ironically, in the Jewish state of Israel embryonic stem cell research
is less controversial, noted BrainStorm's ultra-orthodox president, Chaim
Lebovits.
Still, the company said it has decided to concentrate on
adult stem cells because they are also easier to control than embryonic cells,
which can give rise to tumours.
Excerpt
from Colson’s
column at Townhall:
One atheist understood the moral consequences of his
unbelief: That was Nietzsche, who argued that God is dead, but acknowledged
that without God there could be no binding and objective moral order.
Of course, the “New Atheists” deny this. Instead, they
unconvincingly argue that you can have the benefits of an altruistic,
Christian-like morality without God.
Nietzsche would laugh—and wonder why they don’t make
atheists like they used to.
“…Dr. Glasser did not have feeling
in his feet before the transplant and now he has feeling in his feet again,
possibly indicating that his peripheral polyneuropathy is improving as well.”
- Ewa Carrier, M.D.
A
debilitating muscle disease that can cause lameness and suffocation is being treated
with adult stem cells in groundbreaking research conducted by The Bone
Marrow Transplant Program at University
of California, San Diego Medical
Center. A
description of the disease is as follows:
Myasthenia Gravis (MG) is a rare neuromuscular autoimmune
disease where the body’s immune system, which normally protects the body,
mistakenly attacks itself. The transmission of nerve impulses to muscles
is interrupted, which ultimately prevents the muscles from contracting.
Without the proper nerve impulses, muscles that control breathing can’t
function.
Here’s a description
of how the ethical adult stem cell therapy works:
This new procedure reprograms the patient’s stem cells,
destroying them with chemotherapy, before re-introducing purified blood-forming
stem cells. After the transplant, the modified stem cells build new bone
marrow, renewing the immune system with correct signaling, renewing the immune
system with cells that don’t attack the body.
For more
information on the successes of ethical adult stem cell research click here.
Oregon already has a marriage amendment,
but liberal activists managed to convince the state legislature to pass two
laws which awarded privileges suspiciously similar to marriage to same-sex
couples. An AP
report continues:
State elections officials reported Monday that the effort
fell short 116 valid signatures of the 55,179 needed to suspend the law and
place it on the November 2008 ballot for a popular vote.
LifeNews
reports on the British government’s recent
decision to allow several forms of unethical research.
The British government has caved in to pressure from
scientists there and announced it is backing a revised bill in parliament for
human-animal hybrids, or chimeras. The creation of part-human, part-animal
embryos has pro-life advocates upset as they say it's another step in the
devaluation of human life.
As if
creating human chimera embryos for the sole purpose of killing them for their
stem cells weren’t enough LifeNews continues:
The bill also allows the creation of so-called
"savior siblings" for serious illnesses and not just life-threatening
ones. In addition to taking embryonic stem cells from the human being, the bill
would allow scientists to harvest organs and take "other types of tissue
and cells."
The
Boston Globe reports that a health
panel appointed by Gov. Patrick is seeking to overturn the important stem cell
guidelines former Gov. Mitt Romney instituted to prevent tax-funded unethical
research on human embryos.
Excerpt:
Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family
Institute, said removing the regulations put in place under Romney would open
up a "Pandora's box of creating human embryos in laboratory conditions on
a wide-scale production."
"We need safeguards against the rampant exploitation
of human life," he said. "Harvesting eggs from women is an
exploitation of women and creating human embryos for the sole purpose of
destroying them is an exploitation of human life."
UPDATE: It’s official. As CitizenLink and LifeNews report the health
panel in Massachusetts
has overturned former Governor Romney’s ethical guidelines preventing the
creation of embryos for destructive research.
Excerpt
from LifeNews report:
The Nobel prize committed mentioned embryonic stem cell
research in their citation to the scientists and said, they had discovered
"principles for introducing specific gene modification in mice by the use
of embryonic stem cells."
However, the science behind treating humans with embryonic
stem cells and the work the scientists did is very different and embryonic stem
cell treatments, if they're ever produced, could be decades away because of
various problems such as rejection by a patient's immune system.
Adult stem cells have not had those problems and have
already treated patients with dozens of diseases and medical conditions.
 Should U.S. judges consult foreign laws
and precedent when making their rulings or determining constitutionality?
It seems like a pretty obvious answer to most of us,
but to liberal, activist judges using foreign law sounds convenient and
fashionably multicultural.
The
Alliance Defense Fund has released a new video that warns of the dangerous
trend among activist judges
who use foreign law to
advance their liberal agenda through the courts.
Excerpt
from CitizenLink article:
Bill Saunders, senior fellow and director of the Family
Research Council’s Center for Human Life and Bioethics, explained that it's
part of a strategy to achieve what can't be gained through the legislative
branch.
“The social Left, the cultural Left, has known for a long
time that the only way they’re going to achieve their agenda is through the
courts," he said. "So they have looked to international institutions
to try to build up arguments that the ‘international community’ supports
certain things like abortion or gay marriage and that, therefore — according to
them — we in America should pay some attention to that.”
This is
another example of why appointing qualified originalist judges is so crucial to
our nation. Check the AdvanceUSA pro-justice page for more
information.
In an effort
to protect against cervical cancer, some lawmakers and medical professionals advocate
making HPV vaccines mandatory for adolescent girls. As the following
press release demonstrates there are significant concerns regarding the safety
of these drugs. Furthermore, since the human papillomavirus (HPV), often
a precursor to cervical cancer, is a sexually transmitted disease forcing girls
to receive it can significantly undermine parental decisions regarding their
daughter’s personal health and sexuality.
Below is
a press release from Judicial Watch which exposes some of the serious health concerns with a
particular form of HPV vaccine:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: 202-646-5188
October 5, 2007
Judicial Watch
Uncovers New FDA Records Detailing Deaths in
1,824 Adverse Reaction
Reports Related to HPV Vaccine
Judicial Watch Sues
FDA for Producing “Partial Response” to FOIA Request
(Washington, DC) -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group
that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released new
documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the
provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, detailing 1,824 reports of
adverse reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil,
including as many as eight deaths related to the vaccine. Judicial Watch
had previously obtained 1,637 reports relating to Gardasil on May 15, 2007,
bringing the known total to 3,461 adverse reactions including eleven deaths
since FDA approval. Among the new information uncovered by Judicial
Watch:
Excerpts from The
Hill online magazine:
With just 16
months left until President Bush leaves the Oval Office, there are 48 vacancies
on the federal district and appellate courts, and Bush has yet to nominate
judges for 24 of those seats.
…
Republicans
say if Democrats continue to block Southwick and other qualified nominees, they
will spotlight the “obstruction” in the run-up to the election, an issue that
plays well with and energizes the conservative base. And some blame sprawling
Democratic investigations into the Justice Department and other aspects of the
administration for slowing down the White House’s process in finding suitable
nominees.
“The fairness
doctrine flies in the face of the First
Amendment.”
-Sen.
Norm Coleman
Pointing out that the “fairness
doctrine” is not fair at a Heritage Foundation
event today (video posted tomorrow) Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) said “the
fairness doctrine is the biggest misnomer since jumbo shrimp.” He went on to
explain how the fairness doctrine violates the First Amendment’s protections of
free political speech. He asked rhetorically if we really wanted government
regulators monitoring broadcasts with pencil, paper, and stopwatch enforcing
their idea of “fair and balanced.”
Fortunately Sen. Coleman did not
expect fairness doctrine legislation to make any progress in the current
Congress but voiced his fears that a future liberal administration combined with
a liberal Congress would quickly introduce such dangerous
legislation.
Congressman Thomas Price had a
helpful piece published yesterday entitled “The
Left’s Push to Silence Free Speech.”
Marvin Olasky gives a helpful
explanation of the recent
case of federal prisons removing religious texts from prison libraries in
his article at Townhall. The decision is good news for religious freedom in
America. After the Bureau of Prisons
reexamines their policy hopefully they will institute a sensible policy that
merely prohibits texts that incite illegal activity (such as violence and
terrorism) and does not even bring religion per se into the
picture.
UPDATE: To view an updated version (5 Bush confirmations
now that Southwick has been confirmed) click here or check this
blog post from 10/25/2007.
While
some may contend that the United States Senate is doing a respectable job in
confirming judicial nominees, the stats don’t lie.
The U.S.
Senate needs to take its constitutional responsibility to provide “advice and
consent” on President Bush’s judicial nominations seriously, especially in
light of glaring vacancies in the federal courts.
If one
compared the number of circuit court judges confirmed in the last two years of
an eight-year presidential term in which the President and Senate belong to
opposing parties, Bill Clinton would be the “hare” while George W. Bush would not
even merit “tortoise” status. AdvanceUSA has prepared this graph which
compares the circuit court confirmation statistics of Bill Clinton and George
W. Bush who find themselves in nearly identical political situations. Click here for a
larger version of this graph.
Chuck
Colson paints an alarming
but accurate picture of what could happen in America if the dangerous ENDA bill
becomes law in his column at Townhall.
Excerpt:
Imagine you own a small business—let’s say a donut
shop—and you have an employee who is late for work everyday and is rude to
customers. When you fire him, he claims it is really because he is gay—and
sues.
Or imagine you run a daycare center in your church
basement. One day a homosexual applies for a job. When you turn him down, he
says you broke the law.
Today, both of these stories are simply scenarios. But by
the end of the week, they could be reality.
For more information on ENDA check the material on the
AdvanceUSA home page
or the other blog posts in the “ENDA” category.
 In a letter entitled “Constitutional
Protections for Pastors: Your Freedom to Speak Biblical Truth on the Moral
Issues of the Day” several organizations concerned with religious freedom
are offering legal advice to pastors and congregations regarding permissible
issue-oriented political activity.
Pastors, churches, and Christians should understand their rights and
responsibilities to be politically active and involved on the issues facing our
nation.
Excerpt
from letter:
As the 2008 elections approach,
various groups have launched intimidation tactics in an effort to silence
churches and pastors about the great social and moral issues of our time. Churches and pastors need clear guidelines
for permissible political activities to answer to these attacks.
CWA has
also prepared a helpful resource entitled “Political Guidelines for
Churches and Pastors.”
For more
information on church involvement in political issues check the AdvanceUSA church involvement page.
UPDATE: Baptist
Press has published this helpful article explaining “what
can churches do during elections.”
Roll Call (full article available by subscription) reports on the efforts to scrounge up enough votes in the Senate to ensure that Judge Leslie Southwick receives fair treatment. Southwick is President Bush’s nominee for a vacancy on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, is an Iraq War veteran, and was unanimously deemed “well-qualified” by the American Bar Association.
Excerpt:
[Sen.] Cochran [(R-MS)] said Monday that the hurdles to confirming Southwick remain great, but he continues to work with other GOP Senate supporters to try to convince enough Democrats to come on board. He added that he believes if Democratic Senators approach the Southwick nomination with an open mind, then he may eke through.
“The party with the most votes wins,” Cochran said. “And if it’s on a partisan basis, he won’t be confirmed and it would be a tragedy because he is a man of outstanding character who would be an outstanding addition to the court.”
For more information on Southwick’s beleaguered nomination click here or check the related blog posts in the “Southwick” category.
Excerpt from Online Union-Tribune article:
Two San Diego court employees are suing the Superior Court because they say they have been prohibited from holding a lunch hour Bible study in the courthouse.
The federal civil rights suit claims court officials unfairly denied the group's request to meet in an empty courtroom or jury deliberation room.
The Bible study group had met in the courthouse regularly since 2000, but in April 2006, the suit said, court officials banned the meeting, saying it violated court policy.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas is not one to hog the lime light. He rarely gives public interviews, but now that his new memoir “ | | |