Funding at stake in battle over Amendment 2
JEFFERSON CITY – Many Missourians are under the impression that the proposed Amendment 2 to the Missouri Constitution would legalize embryonic stem cell research. However, embryonic stem cell research, including human cloning, is already legal in Missouri.
They also believe that passage of the “Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative” would allow the use of state funds to pay for the research. This, too, is already legal in Missouri.
The real effect of the amendment would be to guarantee continued funding for entities receiving stem cell research funds, including funds for their other programs unrelated to their stem cell research.
Private laboratories are not prohibited from doing the experiments with their own money; but Jaci Winship, executive director of Missourians Against Human Cloning (MAHC), said laboratories are looking to the state because there is not much private funding for human stem cell research.
Michael Whitehead, Kansas City attorney and a board member of MAHC, noted that laboratories can’t get federal government funding except for those narrow lines of cells permitted under the policy of President Bush. However, the state has the ability to provide those funds, even without the constitutional amendment.
“This amendment is designed to protect big business from the people,” Whitehead said, giving an example of how this can happen.
Referring to the wording in paragraph 5 of the proposed amendment, Whitehead notes that once the legislature funds an entity, the law-making body would be prohibited from eliminating or reducing funding to that entity, whether stem-cell-related or not.
“For example if an entity is receiving funding for embryonic stem cell research and the legislature begins across-the-board or targeted cuts for any reason, the entity lawyers could file a lawsuit and complain that it’s because they’re doing the embryonic stem cell research.”
Kerry Messer, lobbyist for the Christian Life Commission of the Missouri Baptist Convention, echoed his concerns. He hopes people will pay attention to the notice attached to the beginning of the amendment by the Secretary of State’s office.
Messer refers to the notice as a “warning.” It indicates that 45 sections of state law are at risk of being altered by this one amendment.
“What Missourians get may not look like what they voted on,” he said.
Referring back to his 22 years’ experience in addressing statewide ballot issues and the Missouri General Assembly, Messer predicted that it could take generations to unravel the lawsuits that would be generated if the amendment were approved.
“Once again, it will not be average Missourians but the politicians and lawyers who will decide what this all means,” he says.
The full amendment can be found at the Secretary of State’s web site, www.sos.mo.gov/elections/2006petitions/ppStemCell.asp.
Working for passage of the amendment is the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures. The coalition charges that those who oppose the initiative have repeatedly tried to pass state laws that would ban and criminalize stem cell research and would prevent Missouri patients from having access to future cures that are available to patients in other states. Winship countered that only bills banning true human cloning, not stem cell research, have been introduced in the legislature.
The coalition claims to have 60 organizations supporting the amendment. However, Whitehead points out that $15.4 million of the $16 million (96 percent) poured into the campaign for passage has come from one Kansas City couple, James and Virginia Stowers, founders of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, presumably one of the organizations expected to benefit from the state funding.
The institute is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 2000 and employing approximately 500 people in a 600,000-square-foot complex. It plans to add an additional 600,000 square-foot structure every decade, in perpetuity.
However, according to its web site, its first addition, which is slated for completion in 2009, will occur only if Missouri voters approve the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative.