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Missouri Supreme Court Upholds Stem Cell Ballot Language

May, 12, 2006 - Jefferson City, MO

 

The Missouri Supreme Court today upheld the lower courts’ rulings that the ballot language for the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative was  fair, clear and accurate.  The decision removes any legal obstacles related to the ballot language and clears the path for the initiative to be decided by Missouri voters in November.

 

“The order by the Missouri Supreme Court denying our opponents’ appeal of the ballot title written by the Missouri Secretary of State is a victory for the many Missouri citizens and patient and medical groups who support the Stem Cell Initiative,” said Donn Rubin, Chairman of Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures. “Time and again, the ballot title language has been found to be fair and accurate. It was first upheld by a circuit court judge, then the Missouri Court of Appeals, and now the Missouri Supreme Court. And just like the courts, Missouri citizens simply do not buy our opponents’ claim that making stem cells in a lab dish to cure disease is the same as cloning a human being. Polling shows a majority of Missourians support stem cell research, which holds tremendous promise for curing diseases like diabetes, Parkinson's, MS, cancer, ALS, sickle cell disease and spinal cord injury.”

 

The Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative was spawned in response to four consecutive years of proposed state legislation to ban and criminalize SCNT and embryonic stem cell research.  Though the proposed legislation failed each time, citizens, patient advocacy groups and institutions were motivated to let the voters settle the matter directly, as provided by Missouri law and thereby remove it from the hands of the legislature.

 

The litigation was filed by an opposition group, Missourians Against Human Cloning (MAHC) and a sprinkling of Missouri residents.  Their legal efforts were backed by the Arizona based Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a group organized by fundamentalist religious conservatives. 

 

MAHC claimed that the Secretary of State’s ballot language summary was misleading because it states the initiative would “ban human cloning.”  The actual constitutional amendment language states: “No person may clone or attempt to clone a human being.”

 

The amendment document also provides the legal definition of “human cloning” as: "Clone or attempt to clone a human being means to implant in a uterus or attempt to implant in a uterus anything other than the product of fertilization of an egg of a human female by a sperm of a human male for the purpose of initiating a pregnancy that could result in the creation of a human fetus, or the birth of a human being."

 

Now that MAHC has failed to halt the initiative by having the ballot language overturned, Missouri voters will have the final word.  The initiative petitions garnered 288,991 signatures of Missouri voters, about twice the required number to qualify for the ballot.   Polls indicate Missouri voters closely mirror the rest of the nation, approving embryonic and SCNT stem cell research by about a 2 to 1 margin.

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