Michigan Christians for Life
Vote NO on Proposition 2
What is Proposal 2 ?
On November 4, Michigan
voters will decide whether to radically amend the constitution to allow
lethal research on live human embryos. Research on embryonic stem cells
is already legal in Michigan.
In response, the Michigan
Citizens Against Unrestricted Science & Experimentation Ballot
Question Committee was formed to address the troubling questions
which are attached to Proposal 2.
Proposal 2 is Deliberately Deceptive
The language of Proposal
2 is deliberately deceptive. For the last two years, Representative
Andrew Meisner and Senator Gretchen Whitmer have been working in the
state legislature to legalize human cloning and allow for unrestricted
experimentation on live human embryos. Their legislative efforts
have to date failed. In January, the Stem Cell Research Ballot Question
Committee announced language for the proposed constitutional amendment.
Of the numerous stem cell proposals that have appeared on the state
ballots across the country, Proposal 2 is the most radical ever
proposed.
Proposal 2 is not about human embryonic stem cell research. Human
embryonic stem cell research is already legal in Michigan and has been
conducted in the state for years. It continues today at the University
of Michigan Center for Human Embryo Stem Cell Research. Proposal 2
authorizes unregulated and unrestricted research not on stem cells, but
on live human embryos.
Proposal 2 Does Not Ban Human Cloning
Proposal 2 does not secure a human
cloning ban in Michigan's Constitution. The proposal states it will do
nothing to change the current law banning cloning, but it actually does
nothing to protect Michigan's ban on cloning.
Leaders of Proposal 2 have already introduced bills in the Michigan
legislature that would legalize human cloning by deceptively changing
the current definition of human cloning to a misleading definition
which would allow researchers to create cloned human embryos. Proposal
2 would do nothing to protect Michigan’s current ban on human cloning
and would not prevent this proposal’s supporters (like Honorary Chair,
Sen. Whitmer) from continuing in their attempts to legalize human
cloning.
Proposal 2 Permits Unrestricted Science
In November, voters should not be deceived
by Proposal 2. It will allow for unregulated, unrestricted
experimentation on human embryos.
Proposal 2’s language allows for any research on live human embryos
which is permitted under federal law. Federal law currently has no
restrictions on human embryonic research. Therefore, research on
live human embryos in Michigan would have no restrictions.
Proposal 2’s language intentionally tries to fool the public into
believing there are restrictions on research where there are
none. Confusing legalese is used in section 2 (d) of the proposal
to say all research must be conducted in accordance with state and
local laws unless those laws prevent, discourage, and restrict the
research or create disincentives to participate in the
research. So in other words, if a state or local law restricts the
research, scientists can ignore the law. Adding this language to the
State Constitution would allow unrestricted research on live human
embryos and no state or local law could change that.
The proposal’s language says that “no stem cells” may be taken from a
human embryo 14 days after cell division. If the proposal’s
organizers didn’t want human embryos killed or researched on after 14
days, the language could have clearly said so. Instead this
language would allow for research on and the killing of human embryos
older than 14 days as long as researchers don’t remove stem
cells. By the time a human embryo is 14 days old, the primitive
neural streak (which is the beginning of a spinal cord and brain) has
begun to develop. There are numerous experiments researchers could
perform on human embryos after 14 days and if Proposal 2 passes,
researchers will be allowed to perform such research as long as they
don’t remove stem cells.
Unrestricted research has led some scientists down a very dangerous
path. Researchers in Great Britain recently used a cloning
technique to create human-cow
hybrid embryos by inserting the nuclei of a human cells into cow
eggs and encouraging them to grow into embryos. These embryos were
part human and part cow.
