NRL News
Page 23
May 2008
Volume 35
Issue 5

Attempt to Ban All Human Cloning in Missouri Delayed
By Liz Townsend

Missouri citizens who attempted to place a measure on the November 2008 ballot that would have banned all forms of human cloning will have to wait until 2010 to try again. An appeals court considering changes to the ballot language issued a ruling just days before 150,000 signatures needed to be filed with the state, making it impossible for cloning opponents to gather names in time for this year’s election, according to the Daily Record.

Sponsored by a coalition of grassroots organizations called Cures without Cloning (CWC), the ballot initiative would have closed a loophole in Amendment Two, which was approved by voters in 2006. The amendment allowed “somatic cell nuclear transfer,” a cloning method in which human embryos are created but destroyed for research—also known as “clone and kill.”

But the ballot summary written by Secretary of State Robin Carnahan mischaracterized the measure, supporters contended. Carnahan wrote that it would “redefin[e] the ban on human cloning or attempted human cloning to criminalize and impose civil penalties for some existing research, therapies and cures.”

CWC filed a lawsuit challenging this wording. In February, Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce rewrote the ballot summary to read that the measure would “change the definition of cloning and ban some of the research as approved by voters in November 2006,” the Daily Record reported.

Cloning supporters appealed Joyce’s decision. The Missouri Court of Appeals Western District ruled May 2 that Judge Joyce should not have rewritten the entire ballot summary, and instead changed only one word in Carnahan’s initial wording: modifying the word “repeal” to “change.”

However, since CWC waited until the court case was decided before beginning the process of collecting signatures, the group did not have time to gather 150,000 names before May 5.

“CWC will continue our educational efforts throughout this year and resubmit our initiative in November,” CWC chair Lori Buffa, M.D., said in a press release. “Hopefully, by this time next year our vast organization of trained volunteer circulators will be collecting signatures for the 2010 election cycle.”