Blunt’s view on cloning inconsistent with pro-life position

Blunt’s view on cloning inconsistent with pro-life position

April 5, 2005

RIDGEDALE – Dogged determination can bite both ways.

Take for example, Gov. Matt Blunt’s position on somantic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), a form of embryo-destroying cloning that the governor refuses to acknowledge is cloning.

Blunt has maintained a pro-life position through his gubernatorial campaign and in his early weeks in office. There is no doubt in my mind that Missourians will see multiple pro-life bills emerge from the Blunt administration over the next four years – and we should rejoice when it happens. But as determined as he seems at being “pro-life,” he is equally resolute – almost stubborn – when confronted by pro-life advocates about his inconsistent position on SCNT.

The contradictory position of Blunt on pro-life issues and SCNT was never more apparent than it was during a question and answer session at a Missouri Society of Newspaper Editors luncheon held April 1 at Big Cedar Resort.

In response to a question about the recent death of Terri Schiavo (the Florida woman who was kept alive via a feeding tube for 13 years before courts ordered it removed) Blunt replied as he has so often: “We should always err on the side of life.”

I immediately followed his answer with this question: “Will you veto any bill that bans SCNT?”

Either unaware – or just uncaring – that he was contradicting himself, Blunt responded quite forcefully, “I will veto any bill that criminalizes SCNT.” What made his answer all the more startling is that the governor – in the same breath – reiterated his opposition to cloning.

In recent weeks a plethora of experts have testified before General Assembly panels and provided scientific evidence that SCNT requires the destruction of an embryo (life). They have been matched by an equal number of experts who say it does not. It is their side that Blunt has mistakenly taken.

If one is willing to acknowledge that the scientific evidence is inconclusive at this point, then governor, whatever happened to, “We should always err on the side of life?”

So what in the world is going on here?

I suspect it is money.

The governor is staunchly pro-business (with which I happen to agree) and the SCNT debate is being framed as an economic debate rather than a moral one. Entities like Washington University in St. Louis and the Stowers Institute in Kansas City see big bucks in the area of SCNT research. Other SCNT supporters blather about how Missouri will look like a state of hayseeds and develop an anti-research reputation (of course this is ridiculous political rhetoric that offers not one shred of evidentiary support). There are whispers in the state Capitol’s hallways that a handful of Republican fat cats – who poured bookoo money into Blunt’s gubernatorial campaign – are holding the governor’s feet to the fire on this one. Somebody must think they can make some money – even if it may mean killing a human being.

While the governor’s threat of a veto exists, the debate rages on. Big money interests will attempt in the next few weeks to kill state Sen. Matt Bartle’s (R-Lee’s Summit) bill banning SCNT. If  pro-life groups are able to cram this through the Senate and House, it will make it more difficult for the governor to carry through with a veto. If he thinks the outcry is bad now from pro-life groups who got him elected, just wait and see what happens if he vetoes a bill after it has garnered bipartisan House and Senate approval.

So what are 600,000 Southern Baptists in Missouri and other pro-life groups to make of this and what can be done about it?

There are two things that this should remind us of: (1) We should never get it in our heads that we can usher in the Kingdom of God through the political process. (2) We should never stop being both “salt and light.”

Meanwhile, there are two things we can do: (1) Pray. Ask God to give the governor (who professes to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ) wisdom and discernment so that his heart is changed on SCNT. (2) Continue to subject him and all those involved to loving accountability by calling and writing them.

The Missouri Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission, The Pathway and Kerry Messer, MBC lobbyist, will continue to join other pro-life groups in working to ban SCNT from Missouri (as it has been in five other states).

When it comes to SCNT, perhaps the governor would be well served to abandon his inconsistent position and heed the advice of another famous Republican – Ronald Reagan – and “call evil by its name.”