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the Stem Cell Page time and ignorance are the enemies |
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Missouri’s Anti-Cures Politicians: Lembke and Bartle |
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December 26, 2006
After months of debate, months of inundating mailboxes with voter information, months of public forums, months of local, regional and national coverage, months of scientific evidence and months of religious discussion, Missouri finally voted on Amendment 2.
It passed.
Yet despite the majority, State Representative Jim Lembke and State Senator Matt Bartle have set about to overturn it, the majority be damned. Last week, this dastardly duo did a five-stops-in-one-day, airborne puddle-jump across Missouri to announce their plan.
And what is their reason for seeking to overturn the will of the voters? They purport to know what Missourians really want.
Forget the overload of information in public forums, forget the data pounding in all that printed material, forget all the media attention and forget the outcome. The pair declared they “...know that voters were confused.”
Bunk.
It is Lembke and Bartle who are confused. One wonders what it is about the word “majority” they don’t understand.
Some in their camp have suggested that the vote was “too close” and therefore a ‘do-over’ is in order. This causes one to wonder what threshold must be reached before the vote should be left to stand. Amendment 2 passed with a 51.2% majority. Is 60% required? Or will 55% suffice? One can only surmise their presumed threshold is no greater than 51.7%. After all, Lembke won his seat with only 51.8% and he hasn’t volunteered to commence a recall petition campaign for his own removal.
Bunk.
A majority is a majority. Period.
At the heart of their ideology is their argument that somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is human cloning. Many times we have heard them say, “This is the same process that created Dolly the Sheep!” The problem is that’s not really true. SCNT was only a portion of the process that created Dolly. The other part - the most important part – was implantation, because without implantation there would be no Dolly.
It’s axiomatic that a part does not constitute the whole and claims to the contrary are baseless. An example...
It’s a fact that the most voluminous material in a nuclear power plant is concrete. But does that make your patio a reactor?
It’s quite a leap to connect those dots. Most reasonable people come to the reasonable conclusion, but not so with Lembke and Bartle. They would have us believe that by creating cells in a Petri dish that are matched to patients, and to be used solely for therapeutic purposes, that somehow we should equate SCNT with reproductive cloning.
To Lembke and Bartle, a dollop of guacamole constitutes the whole enchilada. Never mind that the implantation of any SCNT product – the only way we could use these cells for reproductive purposes – is already banned by Amendment 2. They politely tell us that we are “confused,” right wing political code for “you are too stupid to know the difference.”
Again, bunk.
And let’s not forget their rehashed claim that Missouri taxpayers would foot the bill.
Bunk, yet again.
Amendment 2 neither requires – nor even requests – taxpayer funding for any research. To the contrary, already the estimates are public regarding the expansion of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and the related financial benefits - not costs - to both Missouri’s economy and treasury. It is estimated that the present value of new tax revenues generated by the expansion over the next 20 years is just north of $47 million.
Lembke and Bartle are making it clear that no stem cell-based biotech investment in Missouri should ever be considered secure – even if constitutionally protected – so long as they’re in office. Their message is simple enough: ‘If your company or program doesn’t meet our ideological test, we’re out to get you. Nobody is safe.’ Never mind that the financial analysis performed by economists Joseph H. Haslag, Ph.D., and Brian K. Long, Ph.D. provided proof after proof that Missouri stands to benefit economically from Amendment 2. Moreover, its failure or repeal, in whole or in part, would have a deleterious financial effect. Bartle and Lembke ignore the study, which documents the potential loss of jobs and revenue, as if that’s how our government is supposed to operate.
Big time bunk.
There is something even more sinister here, though. The cruelest cut of all is their message to patients: ‘Whatever cures may be derived from methods of which we disapprove, you may not have them.’ Lembke and Bartle believe they are the ultimate supremacy, wielding authority to apply their personal beliefs as a firewall between patients and their treatments of choice. The pair intend to move the venue from the doctor’s office to the courthouse to choke our medical autonomy by means of criminalization. Their plan is as outrageous as it is simple: Anyone who “participates” in SCNT would be subject to prison and a fine; researchers, doctors, nurses, technicians and patients alike - even if treatments or cures become available.
Imagine the prospect of someone in a wheelchair being cured by SCNT. Lembke and Bartle would threaten that patient with arrest, insisting that his or her first steps out of that wheelchair be into a jail cell.
This misguided notion must be forever dubbed what it is: ‘Anti-Cures.’
And in response we must all shout: “BUNK!”
- by Jeff Eisen
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