It would be funny if it weren’t so deadly serious. There is something happening in Missouri that deserves the attention of us all. In Missouri, where eight out of nine people are opposed to human cloning, there is an embryonic stem cell research initiative that purports to “ban human cloning or attempted cloning” that will actually enshrine human cloning in the Missouri constitution. This proposed constitutional amendment plays with words in a way that is outright deceptive and tramples on scientific truth. As one Missourian put it, “Familiarity breeds contempt. How accurate that is. The reason we hold truth in such high respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it.” (Mark Twain, Notebook, 1898)
The crafters of this deceptive initiative are either unfamiliar with the truth of science or, even more appalling and probably the case, they are familiar with it and are purposely trying to distort it. It’s all in the words. Some examples:
This amendment says, “No person may clone or attempt to clone a human being.” That is the kind of language Missourians will see in the “Official Summary” on the ballot. But what Missourians will not see are the definitions. “‘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.”
Cloning is not defined scientifically as the asexual creation of an embryo through such methods as somatic cell nuclear transfer. Cloning is defined as implanting an already cloned human being into a uterus. This amendment will make it constitutional in Missouri to clone human beings as long as those human beings are killed in order to retrieve their stem cells. The Missouri constitution would in effect mandate the killing of a certain group of human beings. Who in the world could vote for that? Yet many will, unaware of the false and deceptive definition of the words.
There are other problems with the Missouri stem cell initiative. It puts forth deceptive expectations of cures. Even proponents of embryonic stem cell research are warning about the hype of cures “just around the corner.” Also, while claiming to prohibit any “valuable consideration” for the selling of human eggs, it actually allows for incentives to exploit egg donors.
Much more could be said, but I have given this brief summary not just to alert people in Missouri, but to alert us all. Many other states are looking at Missouri and awaiting the outcome of this proposed constitutional amendment. If there are stem cell and cloning initiatives in your state, find out what they say. Find out how the words are defined.
God says, ”The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit” (Proverbs 15:4 NIV). The Missouri proposal and others like it are a “deceitful tongue” that will ultimately crush, not cure, the human spirit. But it is not enough for us to decry the deceit. We must be a “tongue that brings healing” and a voice for life. As Christians, we have the message of the Lord of Life. Jesus has taken the curse of sin through His suffering and death on the cross. He proclaimed victory over death through His resurrection. Having dealt with the eternal consequences of sin, He is now a living and present Savior giving us His promises that help us deal with living in a world where the temporal effects of sin still plague us.
God has blessed us with many technologies that help us deal with disease and injury including the truly promising advances in adult stem cell research. We live under the cross of Christ which helps us see, even through our tears, that God’s love does not diminish when affliction comes but rather is at work producing good according to His purpose. We do not need to step out of the realm of what pleases God in order to pursue cures at “all costs.” For sometimes the cost is too high. When trust in cloning to produce life replaces our trust in God as the author of life and when killing human beings becomes an acceptable, even championed, way of caring for human beings we have paid too high a price. The damage done is not to our bodies but to our souls.