Volatile stem cell debate ahead

[kweerwolf]

The decision last week by an alliance of medical researchers, patient advocates and business groups to ask Missouri voters to endorse stem cell research is likely to spark a bitter, often emotional campaign that pits people suffering from disease and injury against others who insist that the research kills human life.

“I can see this getting really ugly,” said Rick Hardy, a political scientist at the University of Missouri-Columbia. “You can already see the ads: People making deathbed appeals for the research, and the other side showing pictures of fetuses.

“It’s a hot-button issue,” he said, “and people have a lot of emotion invested in the issue on both sides. Given the mix, you have a recipe for a long battle waged on all fronts.”

The initiative, filed Tuesday with the secretary of state, would amend the Missouri Constitution to permit any stem cell research allowed by federal law. That would include laboratory techniques for cloning cells to treat disease but would prohibit attempts to clone humans. Organizers plan to put the initiative on the November 2006 ballot.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/12913734.htm