A Constitutional Right to Cloning?

That’s what Missouri’s Amendment 2 creates, says Kathleen Parker:

To be clear: Approval of “Constitutional Amendment 2″ would mean approval of a constitutional right to clone.

Yet, when voters go to the polls, that’s not what they’ll read on the ballot. Instead, they’ll vote on a bullet-point summary of the 2,100-word amendment that reads like a pro-life manifesto blended with progressive compassion.

….. As for cloning, no one should be surprised to hear that it depends on what one’s definition is. By using less-familiar scientific language, supporters of the stem cell initiative effectively have redefined “cloning” to mean only reproductive cloning — that is, implantation of a lab-created embryo in a woman’s womb for the purpose of creating a human being.

While the amendment would ban that procedure, it would allow “somatic cell nuclear transfer,” which is the widely accepted scientific definition of “cloning.”

Geez, I thought Ohio Learn & Earn (covered like a blanket at Writes Like She Talks) was the most deceptive initiative on statewide ballots this year. It doesn’t even come close to Missouri’s Amendment 2.

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UPDATE: Parker is not the only one raising the alarm that Amendment 2 legalizes cloning (PLEASE get to the final paragraph) –

November 2, 2006

Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) — Over two dozen experts in science, medicine, law and ethics have released a joint open letter saying that Missouri’s Amendment 2 endorses human cloning, despite claims from its supporters to the contrary. They say Missouri voters are being misled into thinking that it actually prohibits human cloning when the opposite is true.
“Amendment 2 creates a constitutional right for researchers to engage in human cloning. Efforts to deny this are misleading and deceptive,” they write. “As individuals who have studied this issue in depth, we hold that it clearly authorizes and promotes human cloning.”

In their letter, the experts conclude, “the people of Missouri should know what they are actually voting on.”

The signers include experts in embryology, microbiology and maternal/fetal medicine, as well as past and present members of the President’s Council on Bioethics and several founding members of Do No Harm: the Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics.
….. “Human cloning is the asexual production of a new living organism, at any stage of development, that is genetically virtually identical to an existing or previously existing human being. It is done through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT),” they explained.

They said that Amendment 2 authorizes the SCNT procedure and limits the state legislature from putting any reasonable limits in place on human cloning.

“In fact, the amendment creates a statewide constitutional right to conduct such human cloning, so competing ethical or human safety considerations, or other state laws, cannot meaningfully limit the research community’s right to do human cloning,” they said.